


ARK: Book 1

by SpinoSlayer711



Series: The ARK Saga [1]
Category: ARK: Survival Evolved
Genre: Battle, Book 1, Dinosaurs, F/M, Jurassic, War, ark, saga, taming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-17 05:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16969017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpinoSlayer711/pseuds/SpinoSlayer711
Summary: The first book of the ARK Saga. The Dawn of the ARK Saga begins. This book chronicles the formation of ARK Village, the discovery of the many dinosaurs that live there, and the war against Apollo.





	1. Stranded

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading the first book of my Ark series! I have the second book already in progress. It's based more off of Ark lore than this book. Characters like Helena Walker and Mei-Yin will appear in the second volume. Also, please note that I wrote this book all the way back in 2015-2016. My skills weren't as honed as they are today so there may be some minor discrepancies, plot holes or grammatical errors. Dialogue is also not quite as realistic as it should be in some places, though I have gone through re-edits and filtered out many of the mistakes. Still, I hope you can enjoy the book for what it is! Excited to hear any feedback you may have!

Chapter 1  
Stranded

Villages in Africa were sometimes busy, sometimes not. This one was as busy as it gets. 

"That's great!" said a voice. 

The other voice replied, "Yes it is." 

"Best of luck to you David, you sure did deserve that promotion." 

It was James Castor, a professional explorer, survivalist and animal trainer. His career had started back in 1996, and he was able to build up the society he had a hand in raising up. It was known as the ESC, or the Explorers Society of the Congo. It was a society that specialized in cryptozoology and probing ever deeper into the Congo's depths. James was talking to David, a member of the ESC, congratulating him on his promotion. 

David was a quiet man, and soon hurried off to the meeting. 

"I'll see you there David!" James called back. 

David waved and walked over to the clubhouse just outside of the village. Amakoko Village was much busier than a normal village since it was the last one before the deep jungle of the Congo. You're on your own after that. 

James was a tall man, just barely over six feet tall, and with short brown hair that went up at the front. He had blue eyes and a face with a near permanent smile on it. He had grown up in America, and had always had an extreme interest in the outdoors, and with animals both living and extinct. In his teenage years he had decided to become a survivalist. Later, he had helped found the ESC, his friend George Anderson becoming co-executive. 

James kept walking briskly along, looking down the main row. The marketplace he was at was full of people buying items. He went up to one of the booths and slowly let his nose take in the overwhelming aroma of spices. He kept walking along until he saw the clubhouse, a large thatched hut, where he would meet the 50 or so people on the team.  
He walked inside and saw the podium where he would announce the beginning of the mission. He was the president of this particular club, and some of his friends were there. There was David near the back. He was a quiet man, who kept to himself, and usually explored on his own. He was tall, and muscular, with short black hair, and military style clothing. He had a tattoo with his brand on it. He was a mercenary before he had went into the army. David then left the army after his tour of duty to enter the ESC, but his naturally quiet, serious mood stuck with him, causing some to call him a stoic, which was more or less true. 

Over in the corner was Shira, an Israeli woman who had been admitted to the club since her father was friends with the CEO of the ESC. She was also quiet, though her quietness didn't echo of confidence like David. She always seemed to be sad and depressed, as if something terrible had happened. He had tried to break the ice with her, but she didn't open up. Though James didn't have any romantic attachments to her, he liked her. Shira was slim, with green eyes and long, flowing black hair. She was in her middle 20's, and was average height. Even though she was sometimes gloomy, she was happiest when she was in the field. James had admired Shira work with large animals, and she had such a way with them. Lions and tigers which had given trainers trouble day after day, Shira could tame after a few short days of work. She was often hired out by zoos or animal sanctuaries to help them control their troublesome animals. She had once been much happier, as James considered her a happy person for some years. But since the last two or so years James reckoned, she had become sad and gloomy, though she never talked about it. 

McClure was also there. He was extremely skilled at taming animals, and had been around African predators his entire life. 

Brian, who was a slight amateur, had been admitted due to his knowledge of field equipment. 

There were many other faces there, and James looked at them all with a smile. James stepped up on the podium, got out his notes, and began to speak. 

"OK…Well, welcome to the Explorer's Society of the Congo. We have many people from many countries here today, and on this mission, we will be going into the heart of the Congo by helicopter. There's a large double-rotor copter waiting on the village helipad, we'll all be going there and traveling down to the Congo's heart. One of the reasons for this mission is to discover any new species of animals in the area." 

He continued for another hour, answered various questions, filled out rosters, and then the entire team entered the huge helicopter and lifted off. There was a tiny airstrip on the edge of the jungle where they were going. They were going off in search of new landmarks in the Congo. It was one of the least explored areas in the world, and they were about to explore it. They would fly above a small part of the ocean, and then, after landing on the strip just inside the jungle, go into the jungle to explore. One of their goals was to find new animal species, hence the amount of animal handlers, and also to find any new landmarks in the Congo.

After a few hours in the air, James went up to the cockpit. He had some piloting experience, though he hadn't been in one of these big choppers for several years. He admired the controls for a while, before he looked over to the pilot. 

"Doing alright?" he asked.

"Yep. Nearly ready for takeoff." responded the pilot. 

James went back to the main chamber. The chopper was wide, with a large middle lane full of supplies and two long bench seats that went the length of the copter. He passed Shira, who gave him a weak smile, which made James wince inside. When people were sad, or in trouble, he had an extreme desire to help. He had tried to get Shira to open up time and again, but nothing helped. He sat near the front of the group. Shira had gotten high up in the ranks since her father was a good friend of the CEO of the ESC. That much he knew about her. 

He looked down at his watch: 12:47 PM. 

"Hmm," he said to himself.

Another few hours and they'd reach the ocean.

A few hours later and they were above the ocean. But there was a big problem. The pilot called James up to the cockpit. James looked at it. 

"What's the matter?" asked James. 

The pilot pointed at the sky. There was a tremendous thunderstorm gathering right above them. There was no avoiding it.

James tried his best to remain calm, "They didn't call for a storm!"

James was right. The weather forecast, which should've been very trustworthy, had gone terribly wrong. 

The pilot strapped in and yelled back, "Everybody, hold on!"

They all held on with all their might. The pilot tried to turn around away from the storm. The storm was too fast however, and the rain suddenly pelted down on the cockpit windshield. James gritted his teeth and watched as lightning flashed, turning the black sky a blinding white, before turning black again. The wind came up, which was the pilot's worst enemy. If a large enough sudden gust of wind hit the propellers, the copter would lose control and crash.

Then, the worst happened. An overwhelming gust of wind smashed into the propellers, which caused the helicopter to flip. Everybody in the copter was flying, supplies flying, and then they spiraled down, down, down. The last thing James remembered was a gigantic splash, and then everything went dark.

He woke up bobbing in a corner of the helicopter. He was in an air pocket, and the rest of him was surrounded by water. This frightened him almost to death. He knew he was underwater. He gasped and looked around for something he could use. There was an axe on the corner he was at. He thought, but if he were to hack out a part of the helicopter skin, water would pour into the air pocket. He knew he wasn't in very deep. There was some light leaking through the open parts of the copter, and if he was deep the pressure would have crushed in the porthole. There were no oxygen tanks in the helicopter near him. He thought he could swim down and see if there was a way out, but that would mean swimming away from the air pocket. He wasn't about to do that. He decided to risk it. Die in the air pocket, or swim out. 

He reached out and took the axe, and with one mighty swing, smashed a huge hole into the helicopter's skin. Water poured into the hole. He swung one last time, opening up the hole considerably. He tore open the rest of the hole with his adrenaline fueled hands, breathed a huge breath, and swam up to the surface with all his might. He was about 25 feet down. He got up to the surface and gasped. He looked for land and there it was; about a mile or two away. He swam with what energy he had remaining. As he reached the shore, he let the waves help him. Then, at last reaching the beach, he crawled onto shore. He laid flat on the sand, exhausted and soaked. He feebly looked up, shaking. The treeline was strangely shaped, as if he had crashed on some tropical island. His head hit the sand and he fell unconscious from exhaustion.

When he awoke, he saw where he was. This was a tropical island. He couldn't see any land near where they were. There was a cliff near the beach, and rocks everywhere. There was a forest behind a large field. He stumbled up and covered his face in his hands. His eyes were blurred, and it took James a bit to adjust. His head was pounding and thudding, with pain hammering on his skull like a rhythmic sledge hammer. When he finally got everything into focus, James saw where he was. He was indeed on a tropical island, though it looked very different from the thick jungles of the Congo. The beach was long, with rocks and logs covering it. 

He got to his feet and began slowly walking down the beach, looking for any signs of survivors. He suddenly saw some sort of animal pacing down the beach in front of him. It looked like it was on two legs, and was quite big. He couldn't see clearly. He began walking towards it, but he suddenly felt horribly dizzy and fell onto the ground. He tried to get up. After a bit of a struggle he got up on his feet. He slowly walked towards where the animal was. When he saw it closer he had to rub his eyes in disbelief. No…it couldn't be. But it was. The animal was a dinosaur; something that had been extinct for thousands of years. Upon closer inspection he saw it was a type of Hadrosaur called Parasaurolophus. 

James gasped; this was almost too amazing to be true. He kept looking in amazement. It honked with its bizarre crest and looked at James. He tried to reach out and touch it. The Parasaurolophus simply let him do it. James could hardly believe it, an extinct animal, still here on the earth. Well, he had at least discovered some new animal species. He also saw a huge tortoise near the Parasaurolophus. He had heard of giant extinct tortoises called Colossochelys, meaning Giant Turtle, and there was one of those on the beach as well.  
James was having a hard time taking it in. What could this mean? This was, possibly, an island, where dinosaurs or supposedly extinct animals had lived in isolation since Noah and the Ark. In fact, that's what he was going to call this island, Ark Island. Since he may have been the only survivor in this new world, like Noah and his family were when they left their own ark. James was just a bit boggled about how this island could've remained undiscovered with all the sonar and radars and satellites orbiting and scanning the earth. He wasn't quite sure exactly how large this island was, or how far away it was from any other land source. Wherever he was, he needed to find out if there were any other survivors.

He kept looking down the shore. He was hoping some people had survived the crash. The last thing he wanted was to be on this mysterious island alone. 

He yelled out, "Hello! Is anybody there! Anyone alive! Survivors?! Hello!" 

Nothing. He knew they could be anywhere, but there was the terror of it. He searched desperately, shouting the entire time. Then, after a few hours he saw smoke. He ran towards it, and gasped in relief. There was McClure, David, and Brian. Shira was also there. They seemed to be the only survivors. James let out a sigh of relief as he ran towards them. 

David looked and saw him, “James! James!” 

Shira looked over and sat bolt upright, then she got up and she and David began jogging over. 

“Oh James! You’re alive!” Shira said sounding relieved. 

James nodded and looked around, “Is there anyone else?” he asked. 

David shook his head, “No. If there’s anybody else we haven’t found them yet. What is this place? There’s…creatures here. Extinct creatures. How is that possible?”  
James didn’t reply.

“We need to form a plan,” James said, “Assess our situation. Then we can look for more survivors.” 

They each discussed their own story, and then talked of survival plans. The helicopter was at the bottom of the sea, and they might be the only survivors. 

Shira had escaped by jumping from the chopper moments before it hit the water. David had done the same. Tom and Brian were both stuck to the choppers safety restraints, but struggled free just before they drowned. 

“James I think I saw you hit your head against something and then you were thrown from your seat. I thought you were dead." David said.

James replied, "I should be. Now for all we know, we're the only survivors. There may be others though, so let's comb the beach a bit more."

They agreed, but just as they began to disperse, a man came charging down the beach. It was Tom. 

"Oh...You're alive!” Tom said, “I've been running down the beach for several hours." 

"Oh Tom! I'm so glad you're alive!” James said, “Did you see any other survivors? Anybody at all?” 

Tom didn't smile. 

"No. I saw the others in the chopper. They...They were all dead." 

James’ face went pale, "What do you mean?" 

"I had to swim through the choppers body to escape. I was in the back chamber when we crashed. When I got out, there was everyone…Just, floating in the water."

Tom crashed down on the ground and put his face in his hands. 

James said in a grim voice, "Well then we are alone." 

A moment of silence ensued as each began to truly understand what that meant. 

"Let's make some shelter." James said, before they all nodded and began to work. 

The last thing James saw was Shira putting her face in her hands, before he went into the jungle in search of timber.

They each built a lean-to, as all the people present were survivalists, or at least had decent survival training. They all could hardly believe that there were extinct animals alive on the island. James looked up to the sky and saw a large flying animal. It was a Pteranodon, or at least that's what he thought. He went back to the beach, wondering at what he saw. There was another Parasaurolophus along the beach, and a new creature, a dodo. He looked at it. The dodo looked back at James. He tried to capture it, and when he did, he killed it with a stone to the head.

"Let’s see if this thing is edible," he said to himself.

Later that night, the survivors had roasted dodo. McClure was the first one to try it. He chewed it a bit and swallowed. 

"A bit tough…not as good as roast chicken but not too bad."

the rest tried some, and agreed with McClure. The next cut they roasted they cooked for a little bit less time. It worked. The dodo was a bit less tough. The taste was more gamey than chicken, though it had a chicken's consistency. 

They started constructing a thatch huts the following day. They gathered palm leaves, set up branches as supports, and by nightfall it was done. At least they had some kind of roof over their heads. 

Later that night James went off by himself out into the beach. He looked up at the immense expanse of ocean and sky above him. One was black as coal, scattered with stars shining like diamonds. The other was the deepest blue possible, which was seemingly eternal, and unable to be crossed. He looked out into it, wondering if he'd ever be able to see home again.

James felt the sunlight beaming into his eyes before he opened them. Slowly, his eyes opened, and he saw sunlight pouring in through the thatch roof. He got up off his mat and looked around. Most of the dodo meat had been eaten the night before, and he decided to try foraging around the area. Close the camp there were some berries in patches.  
James knew what any survivalist knows about food that you don't know about. To see if it's poisonous, touch it to your skin, if nothing comes up in four hours; touch it to your tongue. If nothing comes up for four more hours, swallow a little bit. Nothing after that, and you can know if it's safe to eat. James did this with a berry that looked like a raspberry but was blue. He called them azulberries, and they were safe to eat. He also found little yellow berries that were the size of a pea. They were inedible, since the inside was basically a huge seed. He called these amarberries. There were other types, ones that looked like black cherries he called tintoberries, and those were edible. He named another purple type that looked like a blueberry, Mejoberry. The Mejoberry was very sweet, and was James' favorite of the ones he tried. There were also small white berries called stimberries, which turned out to be quite bitter. 

The last type of berry they found was jet black, and the size of a grape. McClure was the first person to try one. After eating a few, he soon became dizzy, and then he fell down, knocked out. James was worried McClure may have been poisoned, but McClure woke up a few hours later, unharmed. It turned out that the little black berries had a certain toxin in them that would cause the consumer to fall asleep on the spot, but after he woke up, he wouldn't suffer any adverse effects. James called these Narcoberries.

A few days later they had built a more solid base. They had made a fire, and a single building, though they knew they'd be here for a long, long time; possibly for good. James was exploring the area. He saw something rush across the field and chase down a Parasaurolophus. He stared in terror. It was a large Dromaeosaur called Utahraptor. He carefully went back to the base and warned everybody. 

"There are Raptors in the area." he said. 

The others James was getting hungry. He needed to find out what food there was in the area. A steady supply of berries to eat wouldn't sustain them for long. He went down to the beach. He waded into the warm water, looking around for some fish, a large rock in his hand. He saw what looked like a Coelacanth in the water. It was a Coelacanth. He got right above the fish, which, not being afraid of man did nothing as James raised the rock above his head. He threw it down on the fish's head with all his might. The fish was stunned just long enough for James to drag it out of the water and finish it off. He took it to camp, filleted it, and ate it, sharing some with the rest of the people. Coelacanths could get up to five feet long, which was a lot of meat. This one was about two feet long, giving each person a decent serving.

He went back along the beach the next day, and he saw a shark. He was terrified. Now there were Raptors on land and huge sharks in the water. It was about 20 feet long, with orange stripes. For all he knew, it may be a juvenile Megalodon…he was right. 

When he went back to shore he met Shira standing on the beach. It was windy, and her black hair was flowing in the air like wisps of smoke. She was standing as still as a statue, looking dead on at the horizon in a way that made James shudder. James decided to go up and talk to her. He walked over to her, and she looked his way, not smiling, just looking, almost coldly, but the coldness wasn't directed at James. James had the strange sensation that the coldness in her face was directed at herself. It was a strange feeling, but it almost seemed to James as if she was grieving but James couldn't see what, or why. Shira instantly looked away though. 

"Shira, what's the matter?" 

Shira shook her head, "Nothing James. Really nothing. It's..." 

James felt as if he couldn't say anything. He and Shira had always been friends, and sometimes Shira would confide in James. 

"Shira...really, what's wrong?" 

"I'm just remembering. When I lived in Israel my dad would always take me to the Mediterranean Sea to watch the waves. I loved those times. He'd just sit beside me, and we'd just watch the water until the sun had set. He stopped doing it when...when..."

James didn't decide to push it, and though he wanted to help, he certainly didn't ask about what or who she was talking about.  
"It's alright." James said reassuringly.

Shira looked into James’ eyes, then she looked back into the water. James sighed and put a hand on Shira’s shoulder. Shira put her hand on James’. 

“Thank you James.”

James nodded, and they each looked into the water.

He went out again in search of more dodos. He carried a rock in his hand, and looked around. He found a group of three. He picked the fattest one, and flung the rock. It hit its mark. Practicing rock throwing as a kid had finally paid off. They all had some more roast dodo to eat, and as James went for a walk along the beach that evening, he saw another Parasaurolophus. He really wanted to have one. The other one he first saw didn't seem hard to tame. If he could just be able to make a saddle he'd get one. He shook off the notion. This wasn’t Dinotopia, it was a hazardous, dangerous place that James knew almost nothing about.

He decided to try to make something useful. He got some wood for a stone pick. That would be useful. He carved a stone into a pickaxe shape, and then took a large wooden branch, and then bound his creation with fiber and thatch. Now he had a tool. He began gathering more stone with it, to make more weapons or tools. 

Shira had been around the camp, but she still seemed gloomy. Even worse than when she had been in the ESC. James had tried to help, but she had seemed to exclude herself from all camp activities. He decided to leave her alone. Chances were she was working something out in her soul. He didn't want to interfere with that process, which he had to do himself sometimes. Hopefully she'd perk up soon, and James hoped that someday he'd be able to help her find the healing she needed.

As he returned to the camp, he saw another new dinosaur which was large and four-legged with had three horns on its head and was about 30 feet long. It was a Triceratops. He watched as the dinosaur walked off. He wanted to know about all the dinosaurs on the island, there seemed to be so many! On the way to the base he spotted another new dinosaur. It was about six feet long and had a small frill. James looked and said, "Is that a Dilophosaurus?"


	2. The Tribe of ARK

The dinosaur stood in front of James. It was a Dilophosaurus. It was small, at less than ten feet long, but it screeched and snapped as if it was some massive apex predator. It was covered in spines, and it had two strange head crests that made its head look bigger than it was. 

“Go away!” James shouted, “Go on! Get out of here!”

Suddenly it extended a neck frill made of skin and screeched loudly, before spitting a glob of sticky venom at James’ face. James narrowly missed it. James now knew to steer clear of the front of a Dilophosaurus. He had a stone pick in his hand, and he swung it at the Dilophosaurus’ head. He hit, and the creature died. 

He looked at it. it had a large frill of skin on its neck, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. He took some meat and hide from it. He decided to try and cook the meat, and after building a small fire, he tasted it. Almost instantly he spit it out. It had a foul, bitter taste and James had to wash his mouth out with water to get the taste out.

He went to the beach and saw a giant tortoise, dead. 

“Hmm,” James said to himself, “Odd”. 

He went up to it and took some meat from it. He also took the pick and harvested some of the shell. He could probably use it for something. He took some of the meat and cooked it on the fire, still glowing a small way down from the carcass. He tasted the turtle meat. It didn’t taste as awful as the Dilophosaurus, just a bit tough, and without much flavor. It was also very dark.

He knew fish tasted good, so James went to the beach to try his luck at fishing. He looked under the water, and in the murky near-distance he saw a shark. But now that he thought about it, he might be able to make the shark beach itself. He quickly decided against that when he saw a Coelacanth in the water, which would be a much easier target. He swung his pick at it, and it swum a short distance and went belly up. More food. He was going to swim out to retrieve it when the shark came over. He must’ve smelled the blood. James flew out of the water and watched the shark chomp down on his meal. He returned to the camp with an empty stomach. 

When he arrived, David was cooking his own Coelacanth. 

"Anything?" David asked.

"No, I killed a fish but this huge shark made it his own dinner." 

David shook his head. James looked around. How could this place have remained undiscovered for so long? How, with all the modern radars and maps, had this place simply remained completely unknown? More baffling still, how on earth could there be dinosaurs living on the island? James was confused. This place should've been discovered. It wasn't a small island by a long shot. Oh well, it didn't matter right now. They were here, and they needed to survive.

When he went out the next day, he was trying to find more food. He needed a good, reliable source. Shira and David had gone out and harvested a Coelacanth the day before, and Tom, McClure and Brian had continued working on a shelter. He spent the day looking but found nothing, so he went back to camp and worked on making some more tools. He crafted a stone hatchet, to make cutting down trees an easier task. 

As he was cutting, Shira came from out of the brush, startling James. 

"Oh!" said James with surprise. 

Shira, with a dejected look said, "Sorry James...I didn't see you." 

James had noticed Shira was being very shy and she seemed to be on stealth mode, constantly slipping in and out, as if avoiding all contact with the others. James tried to open her up a bit just this once. He didn't know how it would end, but if he could only help her he would. 

"Shira," said James with a reassuring tone, "Is something wrong? You seem to be very troubled about something. We're all here for you." 

Shira's face suddenly turned angry, "No!" She said loudly, causing James to step back. 

She closed her eyes and sighed, "We’re stuck James. There’s nowhere to go. All you men go about as if we've discovered something great, but we're stuck. We’ll all probably be killed by some creature before the end of this week. There's nothing you could do for me then. This place doesn’t feel natural. I don’t think we’ll ever see a rescue craft. I’m never going to be able to see my family again. Never going to see my brother or tell him…” 

She stopped. James knew exactly what she felt. Indeed, it did feel like they were alone. James tried to speak some comfort to her. 

"Shira, we were meant to come here. We will get through this. You don't think I have the same fears as you? I do. Very much. But still, it's better to face it bravely than lose hope. I'm by your side."

James stepped over to Shira, “I promise you, I will protect you. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, and to keep our friends safe. Even if we never get off this island, I will always keep that goal in mind. You have to be strong Shira. I know you are.”

Shira's face lost a bit of the anger. He knew she didn't fully except what he had just said, but he hoped it would make some kind of impression on her. 

"Shira," said James cautiously, "I've noticed you've been sadder the past two years. I’m not asking what happened, but if there is anything I can do to help, please tell me.”

"I have to go." she said, and without a goodbye, she snuck away like a thief, leaving James alone in the forest. 

The day after he went out along the beach. He had decided to explore more of the island’s interior. Yesterday's encounter with Shira troubled him deeply, but he tried to put it out of his mind. He went into the jungle, warily. After an hour of hacking his way through the bush he came to a large freshwater lake. The water was cool and pure. He drank some, and looked across it. It was long, and you could see to the other shore, and swim across it easily, but it was so long James couldn’t see the other end. He named it Lake Lore.   
There was a Triceratops along the beach. James was again overcome that this place had living dinosaurs in it. He looked across the water and saw something he didn’t like. It was a huge crocodile, with a narrow snout that ended in a bulbous bump, and a 40 foot long body. From what he could make of it, he figured it was the biggest crocodile that ever lived: Sarcosuchus. It was a killer crocodile that ate dinosaurs. 

He steered clear of the monster, while looking for more food. He needed to find some dodos to eat. When he went into the bush all he found was a Parasaurolophus. On second thoughts, James went back to look in the water one more time. He saw another Coelacanth. When he dove in and killed it, the Sarcosuchus was so close he could see its massive silhouette. He grabbed the fish and scrambled out of the water. 

He started building a fire when he saw another Dilophosaurus looking at him from a distance. James threw a rock at it, which scared it off. He lit the fire, cooked the fish, and ate it. Next he went to a rock. He was out of flint, and looking at the rock he saw it was flinty, so he extracted it with his stone pick. Flint is softer than rock so the pick didn’t break. Now he had more flint for the fire. 

Taking up the flint he was knocked backwards by something that darted over his way. He shot up and looked; with frill extended the same Dilophosaurus glared at James and screeched. James looked back. It was orange with white flecks. James threw a rock at the pest, who dodged it and scurried off into the forest. James was puzzled by the creature. It fancied itself an apex predator, but was just as likely to attack as run off in terror. 

He was heading back to camp with a full belly. At least he had caught a fish. He walked along the shores of newly christened Lake Lore, when he saw the Dilophosaurus again. It screeched and shot over. James tried to dodge the venom it spat out but he couldn’t. His eyes suddenly felt searing pain and he could only see through blurred and darkened vision. He yelled in pain, and flailed his pick wildly about. He must’ve hit the Dilophosaurus, since it screeched and ran off. he wiped as much off his eyes as possible, and then flushed them out with water from Lake Lore. After a half hour the pain left and he could see clearly again. 

He went back to the camp but nobody was there. He built another fire and looked on. He heard an animal come towards the fire, and when he saw it he gasped in awe. It was a Stegosaurus, with plates towering up on its back and spines on its tail. It was coming towards the fire. 

“What are you going towards the fire for?” asked James. 

The Stegosaurus continued eating unfazed. Near the camp he heard a screech. 

James gritted his teeth, “Not again!”

He rushed towards the sound, stone pick in hand. It was the same Dilophosaurus. This time, the deed was done, and he left out the meat for Coelacanth bait. He caught several with it, which he cooked in the fire. The whole camp feasted on fish that night.

The next morning he went out to chop some wood for a building they were starting up at Lake Lore. That would be their temporary base while they continued work on a village James called Ark Village. Each person built their own house, and the others helped out wherever possible. James and McClure had finished their houses, and Shira had almost completed hers. The others hadn’t gotten much of a chance to build, as David loved exploring and camping under the stars, so James hardly saw him at all, and Tom and Brian were both convinced a ship or plane or helicopter would come by, so they camped on the beach day and night. James tried to break their trance and suggest starting a home. Tom was a bit more accepting after a while, but Brian would have none of it. 

James’ axe struck a log, which split in half. He swung again. Sweat dripped down his forehead. He set his axe against a tree and mopped his forehead. His mind was filled with thoughts and doubts. What of Shira? Had what he said to her yesterday meant anything to her? He saw another animal. 

It looked like an elephant mixed with a hippo. It was known in the fossil record as Phiomia. It had the body of a hippo, with an elephant’s head. It had tusks pointing down like fangs, a short trunk, and huge bottom incisor teeth. It was about the size of a rhinoceros.

The fledgling Ark Village needed some more meat. James and McClure had put up a primitive meat shed, so James was not only chopping wood but looking for meat. James and McClure were both out on a hunting expedition. They had primitive spears in their hand. They came to an open clearing and James looked ahead of him. He saw a Triceratops. It wasn’t full grown, but was big enough, should he try to bring it down. James and McClure looked at each other.

“Think we should go for it?” James asked.

McClure shrugged, “It isn’t too large. I think we can take it. Just try to aim for its vital organs with the spear.”

They began stalking the beast, which was grazing, oblivious to the danger. When they got close enough, James lifted his spear and threw it at the Triceratops’ chest. The spear stuck in slightly but fell out. A small amount of blood oozed out of the wound. It bellowed and turned to face James. He ran away, but the Triceratops followed, head lowered. James sprinted as fast as his adrenaline rush would take him. He leapt onto a boulder to try to get away. The Triceratops tried to clamber on top but slipped. It tried again and slipped once more. It turned, bellowed and lumbered off. McClure had hidden a good distance away. They regrouped and began looking for other food options.  
They were near Lake Lore and they decided to look for food there. All the sudden, before he could react James was catapulted into the air. He looked down and saw the frill of the Triceratops. He was pole vaulted nine feet into the air. He rolled into the landing and used the momentum to stand up. It was a miracle he wasn't injured or killed by the horns of the dinosaur. It was the Triceratops he had injured earlier. The Triceratops had turned to face him, and James sprinted into the forest and down into Lake Lore. He breathed heavy. He had lost the dinosaur. He hid for a few more moments before going back to Lake Lore.

No fish. He looked at the beach shore for several more minutes before hearing the telltale crashing footsteps. The Triceratops exploded out of the bush.   
‘Man, it is really not happy with me,’ thought James as he swam out to the other side of Lake Lore. 

Triceratops wouldn’t swim unless it was a matter of life and death for it, and, as expected, it turned back. James saw a dodo on the shore when he clambered up. 

“Well, there’s lunch…” he said to himself.

After cooking the dodo, he ate a bit for himself and saved the rest to put into the meat shed back at Ark Village. He kept walking along the beach, gathering some of the berries on the bushes. There was a cliff on one side and the ocean on the other. There was a cove where the cliff went back into the forest before extending back out again.   
Suddenly he saw something that made his heart skip a beat. There was a bipedal creature inside the cove. It came out and jumped into the air. It was a person. James’ eyes widened. The man had seen him. Could he be a part of a hostile tribe? Or a cannibal? James also wondered if these could be allies. James suddenly realized there was another man next to the first man. James carefully went forward. The two men came closer and James hit the dirt. They were wearing cloth and hide clothes, very similar to what James was wearing. They were talking to each other and went forward a bit more when James stood up and held up his hands. 

“Are you friendly!?” 

One of the men shouted back, “Yes!” 

James was amazed; these men spoke English. 

James yelled, “Can I trust you?! Because almost everything I’ve come across here has tried to kill me.” 

One of the men shouted back, “Yeah, you can trust us! Come on over! We’re part of a tribe that lived here! Wait, we’re coming over! You can see we don’t have weapons on us!” 

James was both incredibly nervous and incredibly excited. In case they were treacherous, he took out his slingshot he had made back at camp. They came over on something James wasn’t expecting at all. They were riding a Triceratops. James gasped. It had a huge saddle and bridle, and looking like a gigantic reptilian elephant tamed for a circus. They both laughed when they saw James’ surprise. They both jumped down. 

The first man was young, around James’ age at 20 and odd years. He was muscular, but not overly so. He had thick, wavy brown hair, and cheerful green eyes, with a smile that was as infectious as they came. He extended his hand. James took it. 

‘They must be from the outside.’ James thought to himself. 

The first man said, “My name is Shadow. We’re from the Rockart tribe. We’ve lived here on this island all our lives. We have men, women and children in our tribe, and we live over the hill. We saw your craft hit the water earlier this week. We were wondering if there were any survivors. I’m so pleased to meet you! This is my cousin, Rhino.” 

James took Rhino’s hand and shook it. It was large, rough and calloused, used to doing hard work. His hands matched his entire body and frame in fact. 

“I am the tribe’s carpenter,” said Rhino.

Rhino had some sort of accent that James couldn't quite identify. 

Shadow laughed, "What brings you here?" 

James explained the crash and how they had become stranded on the island. 

"Oh," said Shadow, "Sounds like our own story. My grandfather was the captain of a steamship from Britain. He crashed here and built a tribe here. But we have a problem in our tribe. We're becoming extremely overpopulated. 60 years here and we've had quite big families. We started out as 50, and now we number over 200. There's just too many people and not enough resources. How many are in your clan?" 

"Only five. Myself, Shira, Brian, Tom, and David." 

James explained he and his small crew was building a village named Ark, and Shadow and Rhino agreed to join them, teaming up, and becoming a new tribe. 

"This may be what we're looking for." said Rhino. 

Rhino went forward, "James, how would it be if we and a number of our villagers join your tribe?" 

James thought about it. They needed the manpower more villagers could provide, and James felt like he could trust these people. They didn’t seem hostile in the least.

James said, "Rhino, this is what I was looking for!" 

"Then it's settled!" said Shadow joyfully, "We're now members of the Ark Tribe." 

The next day Rhino and Shadow showed up, and with them over 40 men, women and children. There it was. The start of a new life in a new land. James knew he could and would make it here. He had to. This was survival. 

The building of the village progressed rapidly. Shadow and Rhino became, along with James, the leaders of the new Ark Tribe. Within a month, they had built a village, and they had plans to build bases elsewhere, but first, they needed to focus on building the big village. Shadow knew a great deal about dinosaurs, and how to tame them. Rhino was a master craftsman, constructing strong reliable buildings and strong reliable saddles for their dinosaurs, once they acquired any that is. 

He had wondered for a long time how exactly one was to tame a dinosaur. Some, like the Parasaurolophus, seemed like they would be easy to tame, but a Tyrannosaurus? How was that done? 

He asked Shadow one day, “In your old village, has anybody ever tamed a Tyrannosaurus?” 

Shadow thought for a moment and replied, “Yes actually, but it’s very hard, you need a potent stinging concoction made from plant matter here. But yes it can be done.”

James was astonished. He would’ve never thought that such a monster could ever be approached, let alone tamed. He chewed on this thought while they were building a hut for one of the tribe members. His daydreams were interrupted when Rhino yelled from the roof.

“Hammer please!”

James tossed up the hammer and continued his thoughts. As he himself hammered in planks and grabbed nails he thought deep about this place. It was beautiful, and he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to be rescued. This was an adventurer’s paradise, and James was sure he’d love it here. His only problem was Shira. He wanted to help her, to raise her from the depression she was in. As he looked around, he was stunned by the wonder of it all. This vast expanse of plains and jungle and ocean before him. He was startled out of his wonderment when he heard a loud yell from Rhino. He looked up to see him drop the hammer, shake his hand violently, and put his thumb in his mouth.

James went out with Shadow and Rhino. They were building a hut for an elderly tribeswoman, and they needed to collect some wood. They set about chopping down trees. 

Rhino thought for a second on what they would need, “Oh, guys, we’re going to need some hide, but we don’t have any down at the village storehouse.”

James thought for a moment and said, “Well Triceratops give plenty of hide, and they’re all over the place.”

The three of them agreed that’s what they should do. They found a decent sized female along the beach and went to harvest it, when all the sudden an enormous bull charged out from the undergrowth, and he was heading right for James.


	3. The Campfire Crew

James dodged the huge Triceratops' massive head. Shadow and Rhino both hacked at the dinosaur’s back with their hatchets and picks. They spun around it, constantly hacking and swiping. The bull was huge, about 30 feet long, with horns long enough to run three people through. One person would distract the Triceratops, and another would attack the creature, along with the other. The Triceratops was losing blood, and James kept going at it. After a while they brought down the Triceratops. 

They harvested the hide and took some of the meat. Tom came from the north. He had come to see what the others were doing. He saw the carcass of the Triceratops and gasped in awe. The dinosaur was quite big; obviously a bull. They saw a Parasaurolophus on the other side of the field they were in.

James looked and said, "There's another Parasaurolophus." 

Parasaurolophus was James' favorite dinosaur.

Shadow huffed, “If we didn't have to drag this Triceratops out of here I'd probably tame that Parasaur."

"Shadow, why don't you hold classes or something on how to tame certain dinosaurs?" James asked.

Shadow cocked his head, "Not a bad idea..." 

Rhino huffed, "He's full of himself, Shadow you remember the time when you were trying to "tame" that Parasaur and when you eventually got a saddle on it you mounted it and it threw you all the way to-" 

"Yes!" interrupted Shadow, "My tailbone still hurts!" 

Rhino shook his head and laughed a big booming laugh. 

Shadow mock laughed, "Rhino, do you remember the time you tried to get on that Stegosaurus that didn't really like you and when you got in front of it that thing roared so loud it scared you half to-"

"I can do a very accurate copy of that roar if you don't end your story right now."

James chuckled and continued working.

Out of the blue as they were dragging the remains of the Triceratops a man ran out of nowhere and started charging at Rhino. The men looked at the man, who came closer and closer before running right into Rhino, before punching him in the face. Rhino, startled, ran off when the man pulled out a stone hatchet. 

Shadow looked at James, "What just happened?!" 

Suddenly the man wheeled around and started attacking James. James saw him raise his hatchet while he was running. James froze and at just the right moment jumped out of the maniac's way. The man swung with all his might, but missed James, throwing himself off balance. James took the moment, threw himself on the man's back, and performed a choke hold. Shadow came around and wrenched the hatchet out of the man's hand. 

James let go of his hold a bit and demanded to the man, "What's your name?" 

the man said, "Axelon…Dino Raiders tribe." 

James let him get up and said firmly, "Don't ever do that again," before landing a resounding sucker punch to his face, knocking him out.

They dragged him over to a rock before leaving promptly. They didn't want him to find out where Ark Village was at all. James was unnerved by the encounter. 

He looked at the unconscious Dino Raider, then at Rhino, “Have you heard of the Dino Raiders at all?”

Rhino huffed, “They’re scum,” he said, “A bunch of cutthroats. They attacked us before but we were able to fend them off. Nothing but a petty thieving tribe.” 

James looked back at the man before they abandoned him.

They needed more hide, and Shadow told James the strongest hide available was that of the Triceratops. When they found one, they both charged and hacked with their stone picks. The only problem with hunting Triceratops is that when threatened, it will attack with its horns. James attacked and the Triceratops turned around and almost stabbed James with his horns. He narrowly missed, but its horns pierced James' shirt, and ripped it off. It remained one of James' closest brushes with death. They quickly dispatched the Triceratops, and harvested the hide and meat. 

Rhino and David came up when they heard the racket, to see James and Shadow harvesting meat and hide. After totally taking all the resources they went down to the beach to cook some of the Triceratops' meat.

When they were done, they noticed David wasn't there. 

James looked around and wondered aloud, "Where'd David go?" 

He looked up the hill from the beach. 

David come sprinting down the hill yelling, "Get in the water now! Hurry! The water!"

The reason for David's panic soon showed itself when a Triceratops came bowling down the hill bellowing. They all scrambled into the water, and the Triceratops didn't follow.

After crawling up the other side James looked at David, who had an embarrassed smile on his face. 

Rhino said, "Why'd you do that David?" 

No answer on David's end.

They built a campfire on the other end of the lake, and since evening was coming, they decided to camp there for the night. It also happened that there were all kinds of Coelacanths in that part of the water. James had gotten quite skilled at harvesting Coelacanths. Since they had absolutely no fear of man, he could do anything short of touching them when near, and it was quite an easy task to catch them. James would go underwater with a stone, or club, and then he'd club the fish over the head. They'd go down, and he'd cook them. 

He found one near the camp and he caught it and brought it back. 

Shadow congratulated James on his catch, “Great work James! Still, that won’t be enough to feed us all. Rhino can eat an entire Coelacanth by himself anyway.” 

Rhino gave Shadow a look, “Why don’t you help James go catch one?” 

Shadow laughed, “With pleasure!”

So James went out and gathered another one. Shadow went out to catch one more, but he killed his with a slingshot, firing into the water. Shadow came back after a short while with one more fish. Now they had enough. They cooked the meat and had a feast. It was dark now, and James thought he saw something moving in the shadows of the fire. James alerted his friends. It wasn't a dinosaur; it was a human. After that nutcase had tried to kill Rhino and Shadow, he wasn't in the mood to be visited by people he didn't know. Who were these Dino Raiders anyway? The tribe's name didn't sound very friendly that was for sure. 

Suddenly Shadow let out a scream. He was being attacked. James went over, found the attacker and knocked him out. It was the same person who had tried to attack them earlier: Axelon. James didn't like this at all. Things got even scarier when another person dragged away Axelon's unconscious body. James told the men to get out their weapons. Several tense minutes passed. Nothing else happened. 

“Alright guys, let’s be careful here,” Shadow said, “There could be more. Keep your weapons out.”

An hour later, and nothing happened. No people came by, and it seemed like all the Dino Raiders had gone. A twig snapped near the water's edge. 

James sat bolt upright, “Who now?” he asked under his breath

It was another human, though the person looked more slender and faster than the others. James narrowed his eyes. Was it a woman? Coming into the glow of the firelight was Shira. 

“Shira!” James exclaimed, “I’m so relieved to see you!”

"Where've you guys been?” she asked, “The entire village is looking for you."

"We're getting out of here at first light,” James replied “We're OK, there's some bad characters around here."

Shira raised an eyebrow, "Who?" 

Shadow spoke, "There's a group of men called the Dino Raiders that are harassing us. I know plenty about those cutthroats." 

Shira looked around, "Should I stay now that I'm out?" 

James thought about it. Now that she was here she may as well stay. A Dino Raider, or whatever these maniacs were could easily kill her if she went out alone. 

"Yes. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, but be careful, there are some nasty people around here."

Shira nodded, "Alright. I came prepared."

She lifted the edge of her cloak to reveal a sheathed knife. 

James laughed, "Good job. Here, have some fish."

She sat down and picked up the trencher with the sizzling fish on it. She picked up a fork shaped stick and began eating the fish. 

She nodded, "This is the first time I've eaten this." she said. 

James raised an eyebrow, "I thought you've already eaten it before?" 

She shook her head, "No, I actually haven't. I've eaten some of the berries and other meat but never this. I actually don't like fish much but this is pretty tasty." 

James noticed that Shira seemed a little less depressed than she had been. He still didn't know what the problem was, but he let it go, and enjoyed himself. There were no more signs of the Dino Raiders. They continued eating, before Shadow spoke.

"So Shira, where do you come from?" 

James was suddenly excited. Now he might be able to find out a little bit more about her.

She finished chewing on her fish and responded, "Well I lived in America before I came here." 

"Oh I know where that is. Some of the older people in my old tribe lived there. Were you born there?" 

"No, I was born in Israel. My father had a position in the government there, and he got me a position in the ESC, which is the explorer's society of the Congo. That's a jungle in Africa."

Shadow nodded. "I haven't heard of Israel...although that's the other name of Jacob in the Bible right?" 

James perked up, "You know about the Bible?"

Shadow nodded vigorously, "When the ship crashed, not much washed up on the beach, except a Bible, completely dry and intact. It was a miracle. But, that's the name of a country now?" 

Shira nodded. 

"Interesting. Any brothers or sisters?"

Shira stopped eating and began staring into the fire, before looking down and quickly saying, "Uh, a brother. No sisters." 

Shadow looked at James, who looked back. James was beginning to piece together Shira's puzzle, but he still didn't have enough pieces. He had a hunch though that whatever was eating at Shira had something to do with her brother. 

Shadow broke the ice again, "Uh, were you or are you married?" 

Shira shook her head, "No I haven't married." 

James got a bit uncomfortable with that question. 

He tried to change the subject, "Rhino what about you?" 

Rhino looked up startled, "Wha?" he said confused, he had been nodding off a bit. 

"Never mind." said James. 

The fire continued to flicker on the high grass, illuminating the faces of James' friends. He built up the fire and they each finished off their portions of fish, and after a while bedded down, with one person keeping watch for any enemies.

It was James' turn to keep watch. As he watched, he looked into the night sky. There was a thin crescent moon high in the sky, and dozens of stars shining like tiny diamonds tossed throughout the inky darkness above James' head. There were certain things that James admired, and he could name dozens of examples, but one of the things that always got at his heart, was a night sky full of stars. It made his heart swell up with happiness. He smiled and stared into the deep abyss. Then he looked down. The fire sent sparks into the air, as if they were reaching for the sky, trying to become stars themselves. He chuckled, and then looked down. Shadow was asleep and after a bit he shifted and began snoring. Rhino was snoring and loudly too. Then he looked down at Shira. She was sleeping peacefully, and it calmed James to see her. Her blanket had slipped a bit down her body, and it was chillier here. He stooped down and gently pulled the covers up and over her. She stirred a bit and then her eyes slowly opened. 

She tugged a bit on the blanket and said, "What time is it?" 

"A bit passed midnight." James replied. 

"What were you doing?" she asked sleepily.

"Just admiring the stars."

She began to sit up, and then she looked up herself. 

After a while looking up together Shira said, "You know...I've never really bothered looking up at the stars."

"I've always looked up when I can." 

James continued looking up and then a tear formed in her eye. 

James looked at her, "Shira, is there anything I can do to help you?" 

She shook her head, "No James. Not now. I just...I just have some things to think about. What you said. You told me that we were planted us here for a reason. I never really thought of that."

James was encouraged. He felt as if he had lit a light in Shira's dark soul, though he wished he could know why it was so dark. He still felt that now wasn't the time to ask. He was content to know that he had helped her. 

"It's late Shira, you go back to sleep. We'll return to Ark Village in the morning.”

She nodded, "Alright."

Then she slumped back down and James pulled the covers over her again. She smiled and James smiled back. It warmed James to see her finally smile. Then he returned to his post and looked back up at the sky, and then back at Shira, her eyes warmly looking back at him, then they both closed and James felt a wonderful sense of peace.


	4. Standoff Battles

Near Ark Village, James was on a dodo hunt. They took the meat, and either ate it in the village, or smoked it in the village smokehouse. He found one, and harvested it. He wondered if he'd ever be able to create a dodo farm, but the village had bigger problems right now. They were still building up their lives. It surprised James sometimes, that he really didn't miss the world back home. He found another dodo and harvested it. That would be enough meat to last for a few days. He also gathered some thatch and wood.

He went along the beach, headed back to the village and saw an Apatosaurus charging down the beach. It bellowed, and James gave it a wide berth. He saw Tom coming from behind it.

James yelled over, "Tom! What are you doing?!"

Tom yelled back, still running after the Apatosaurus, "Behind you!"

James looked behind him and saw something he'd never seen before charging towards him. It was a gigantic carnivorous dinosaur, with a huge sail on its back, charging towards on two legs, with its arms outstretched. It was a Spinosaurus. James sprinted, and the Spinosaurus looked over in his direction. It roared and changed directions towards him. He was running away from the ocean, and the Spinosaurus ran after him. James kept looking behind, and after going a good distance, it slowed down, but kept coming. After a while, it turned back and stalked off without a roar. James was confused. He crept back down, and waited till the Spinosaurus was a bit closer to the water, and then daringly shouted to it. It turned, roared and charged again. He ran back to where the Spinosaur turned back again, and it did the same. When it reached that spot, it just turned and nonchalantly went back to the seashore. James had just learned something very interesting about the Spinosaurus. The closer to its territory you were, the more aggressive it was. However, the further away you got, the less aggressive it became.

"That will come in handy in the future," he told himself.

He returned to the village with the meat, and he told Shadow about the new dinosaur he had discovered. Tom was with him.

"You found what!?" Shadow said.

"Spinosaurus. It was chasing Tom."

Shadow said even he had never seen one before. They lived in the center of the jungle, and Spinosaurus lived in the seashore, which explained why.

"Well…one more thing to be afraid of in this place," said Shadow.

He went out again and ate some Coelacanth he gathered. He had gone out to collect some stone for some buildings. He took his stone hatchet and hacked at some rocks. Suddenly, he heard a bellow above him. There were three Triceratops who were visibly angry with him. He sprinted towards the ocean as fast as he could. He got some distance between him and the Triceratops. They charged like an angry herd of bulls, and he jumped into the water. One thing they had learned about Triceratops was that it would never go into water unless it was a matter of life or death. As expected, the angry Triceratops bellowed, and returned back to the forest.

He clambered out of the water when he felt a searing pain rush up his leg. He had gotten stung by a stingray. James screamed as hammering fiery pain enveloped his leg. James thought he could describe it as a demon biting him. He limped back to the beach with the excruciating pain slicing into him, and just as he reached the grass he fell to the ground, convulsed in agony, and all faded into black.

He woke up in the same place, but he felt something grabbing his leg. Instinctively, he lunged towards the thing.

"James! It's OK! Calm down." it was Rhino.

James' head fell back on the grass, his head drenched with sweat. The pain suddenly slammed into him with the force of a freight train. He winced.

"Don't worry James. I'm putting a healing salve on it that'll relieve the pain." Rhino said.

James crushed the grass in his hand and gritted his teeth. It felt like his leg was being stabbed by butcher knives non-stop. The pain only intensified when Rhino put the salve on. But the pain soon lowered down dramatically. James sighed and mopped his soaking forehead.

He took a day to recover, but the healing salve Rhino gave him worked wonders. He went out to get some of his strength back after spending an entire day bedridden. He had a slight limp that would disappear in a few more days. He looked around the beach and saw an Apatosaurus charging towards somebody. It was McClure. The Apatosaurus apparently was charging him. James watched helplessly as the Apatosaurus gained on him, about to crush him to death. There was a 10 foot tall cliff ledge, and McClure climbed it and escaped the Apatosaurus, which stopped chasing him.

When James met up with McClure, he explained, "There was a Raptor that was attacking it. The Apatosaur warded off the Raptor but stampeded, and I couldn't get out of its way."

Fortunately, the cliff saved him from almost certain death.

That night, James went out with Shadow to gather some meat. Certain animals only come out at night, or are more active at night, including the hippo-like elephant Phiomia. It was active during the day, but it fed at night, to get away from certain predators. However, some predators were active at night, and more aggressive. They found a Phiomia a mile from Ark Village, and they brought it down. They were harvesting some of the meat when they heard some loud crashing footsteps. In the moonlight, the dim shape of a Carnotaurus tore into them.

The Carnotaurus was a 25 foot long carnivorous dinosaur with armor, and two horns above its eyes. It was also dangerously fast.

Shadow yelled, and swiped at the beasts' head with his gutting knife. That wouldn't do much, since the Carnotaurus had extremely thick hide. Its only accessible weak spot was its eyes. James took his knife, and swiped at its eyes. It roared, and just as quickly as it had arrived, it sped away back into the jungle. James and Shadow took a bit more meat and quickly left the area. Sometimes Carnotaurus worked in pairs, and two Carnotaurus could be overwhelming.

The next day James went out to try to find some berries. He was on the beach when he saw something he had never seen before. It looked like a huge cat. He could tell by its shape, but when it pounced onto the beach in front of him, James could see it completely. It was jet black, and bigger than a tiger. It had two gigantic fangs in its mouth. It was a Smilodon, more popularly known as a saber-toothed cat.

James got out his stone hatchet, and looked away from it. he knew to never look a big cat in the eye. He slowly grabbed some meat out of his pocket, and threw it on the ground, while praying for God's protection. The cat seemed to relax, and then, it took the meat in its mouth, and stalked back into the brush. James let out a sigh and retreated back to Ark Village. He had enough close calls for one night.

The next morning came quickly. They were constantly building and repairing, and it called for a lot of wood. James had to go into the forest to collect more.

He entered the forest and saw something speed in front of him. It was running perpendicular to him. it was definitely a Raptor. James was terrified of those creatures. They were silent killers, and he hated them. They were tamable however; since Rhino's old tribe had several tamed Raptors. He saw something then tear after the Raptor. It looked like a titanic vulture, with a wingspan of 20 feet.

It was an Argentavis, or Giant Vulture. It was actually attacking the Raptor, and James quickly tried to escape the fray. The Raptor came back, being chased by two Argentavis. One of the Giant Vultures grabbed the Raptor and flew away with it. This terrified James most of all, because if it can carry of a Raptor, the vulture could certainly carry him off. The Argentavis that was left looked at James and uttered a horrible guttural squawking scream. James looked for anything he could hide under. There was a rock, but the Argentavis may be able to reach in and grab him with its razor sharp talons. He decided to fight. He always took some kind of a weapon, and this time he had his stone hatchet, which he used. The Argentavis came over, and James swung with his hatchet. The bird screeched and it stretched out its featherless pink head. James swung at it, and the vulture screamed and flew off, causing a mild whirlwind from its broad wings.

Returning to Ark Village after his encounter with the Argentavis, he saw some activity on the beach. There were three Triceratops all ganging up on a Carnotaurus. The Carnotaurus was being absolutely minced by the horns all around it, and when the Triceratops all dispersed, James saw the carcass of a very unfortunate Carnotaurus. He harvested the meat and hide, and thanked his generous benefactors, which shook their frilled heads and began browsing on some ferns along the jungle's edge. He was returning to Ark Village when he saw two Dilophosaurs coming at him. Sighing, he started running. He was able to outrun the pesky creatures for only a short distance. He suddenly turned when they got close, raised his arms, and yelled loudly. The Dilophosaurs, without glancing back, headed for the hills. James shook his head. It was getting quite dark. The sun was nearing the horizon, and he decided to quickly head back to Ark Village before it got too dark. That's when the predators came out, and there were way too many of them on this island. He gathered his things, and started off.

After escaping the Dilophosaurs he was just inside Ark Village's gates when he heard a whisper. It was dusk, and dark enough to where James couldn't quite make out where or who said it.

He looked around, "Hello?"

Coming out of the shadows was Shira. James was surprised.

"Shira." he said, "What is it?"

She looked at the ground. "Thank you."

Before James could reply, she disappeared, but she had said all she needed to say, and James fell asleep that night with a light heart.


	5. Clive the Dodo

James went out late one night to harvest some Coelacanth. He had learned that the really big ones came out at night, and he was going fishing for some. As he went down to the beach, he passed a Parasaurolophus, which, when it saw James, bellowed and lazily moved to another feeding spot. James was startled when the Parasaurolophus bellowed and crashed away. He got out his spear and torch and saw what it was. It was a Saber-toothed Cat! James yelled, and decided to fight. He got the cat in front of him, bearing its huge white fangs. He yelled, and stabbed the air in front of it with his spear. The Smilodon roared mightily, and crouched. James knew this could only mean one thing: a pounce. He hunched over, and got his spear, intending to throw it at the cat. When it lunged, roaring with red eyes, he threw the spear. It met its mark, and the Smilodon crashed to the ground dead. He breathed heavily. It was his second near death experience with a Smilodon.

He gathered some Coelacanth after the attack, one of which was almost five feet long, and he stored them in the smokehouse to dry. Coelacanth meat was one of the few types of fish meat that could be smoked like pork or beef. It tasted like salmon, but a bit stronger, and James found it quite delicious.

He went out the next morning on a mission: to tame a dodo. He knew that known dodos back home had gone extinct in the 1600's, when people hunted them to death. The type on the island apparently was still alive. He knew from personal experience that dodos were stupid, naïve creatures, and that taming one could be easy. If it was female, it would lay eggs, which would be a source of food, and if it was a male, it could be eaten. He combed the beach for one, and then he saw one.

It was grey, with an orange face. He snuck up to it, getting out his berries. He had seen dodos feast on the purple Mejoberries, which were quite good for humans as well. He had taken a good deal, and thought that hand feeding a dodo wouldn't be too hard. The dodo turned and looked at James. He got out his berries and coaxed the dodo forward. It waddled forward like a huge duck and sniffed the berries, before honking and devouring the handful in James' cupped fingers. The dodo gulped it down, tilting its head up, and then looked back at James, as if asking for more. He got out some more, and it ate those too. A few more handfuls and he tested. He got up and began walking away. The dodo squawked and began following James. It stopped when he stopped, and began walking when he did.

"Yes!" James said, "You shall be named Clive!"

James had no idea where the name came from, but it suited the bird.

Clive kept following James, who chuckled, "Who's a good boy?" said James, "Come on Clive."

And there they went; man and dodo, marching back to Ark Village. This was the village's first tamed dodo. They kept going, until James saw something that took his breath away. Standing on the beach was a gigantic woolly mammoth. It had huge tusks, and was browsing on the berries growing in patches. It bellowed, and took no notice of James or Clive.

The Mammoth was far larger than the Mammoth's from the fossil record. Its tusks were forked, not straight and smooth like normal Mammoth's. James wondered why it was in this tropical climate. It didn't make sense. Mammoths lived in the cold wilds of Siberia, not tropical islands.

Suddenly out of the forest came the most horrifying thing James had ever seen. It was an enormous scorpion, over six feet long, with a stinger the size of a cantaloupe, a huge spine on the end full of paralyzing venom.

There was a giant scorpion known in the fossil record called Pulmonoscorpius, however that was only three feet long, and this was the size of a man! James gasped in shock, and watched as the giant scorpion began attacking the mammoth. The mammoth didn't react in time to prevent a sting to the leg. It trumpeted loudly, before bellowing in rage and bowling the scorpion over with its huge tusks. Not wanting to get involved in the fight, James watched, and Clive ate berries. The mammoth got stung again, and this time, it charged the scorpion, crushing the monstrous arthropod down. It was dead, and James took some of its chitin, which was the creature's hard exoskeleton, which could be made into armor.

He looked down the beach to see yet another Pulmonoscorpius crawling down the sand quite fast. He had heard that some arthropods release pheromones if they're killed, alerting any others nearby to start attacking. The Pulmonoscorpius could obviously do the same. A Pteranodon landed right in front of the monster at the wrong time. The scorpion veered off course to attack the Pteranodon, which saw it at just the right time and flew back into the sky. Confused, the scorpion saw the mammoth, and seeming to remember its mission, made a beeline for it. The scorpion stung the mammoth, which was now loaded with scorpion venom, and bellowing, the mammoth turned around, and using its tusks, flung the scorpion 20 yards down the beach. The creature made horrible squeaking noises that made James' skin crawl.

The scorpion got back on its feet, and scuttled towards the mammoth again. After stinging the mammoth one more time, the huge beast made a trumpet of pain, and collapsed on the ground unconscious. James couldn't bear to see the monster finish off the mammoth, and so he decided to step in. The scorpion had a weak spot in the head, and James got out his knife, and hacked off the scorpion's stinger. The hideous beast convulsed, and made indescribable squeals. James dodged the scorpion's pinchers, and buried his knife in the monster's head, killing it. He breathed a sigh of relief. The mammoth would survive and would wake up in an hour or two. He waited to see if any more scorpions would show up. None did, so he left the mammoth, which ended up waking up just as James was turning to leave.

He returned to the village, who were just as excited to have Clive as James was. It turned out to be a male, but James decided to keep it, in case he ever wanted to breed dodos, which, much later, he would.

The next day he went out and caught two Coelacanths, and collected some berries in the village's never-ending search for food. He decided to go out for a female dodo, and he found out that male dodos had two feathers sticking out of their shoulders, used for show, and females didn't. He only went a short distance from Ark Village when he saw a female dodo. It was completely grey, with a black bill tip and teal wing tips. He got out his Mejoberries and tamed it the same way he tamed Clive. Unfortunately, it decided it didn't like James, and when he turned his back, the dodo waddled off. It went into the thick of the jungle, and James couldn't find it.

He decided to go off and find another one near the beach. As he was going, he heard some growling in the bush. James knew what it was. Running out of the bush were two Dilophosaurus. One was pine green with pink spines, and the other was olive green with yellow spines. James got out his stone pick, and swung, carefully avoiding the Dilophosaurs' faces, so he wouldn't get venom all over his eyes. He dodged the Dilophosaurs, and swung with his pick, not trying to kill them unless he had to. The Dilophosaurs screeched and called, before sprinting away as fast as their legs would carry them. That's what James could never understand about Dilophosaurs. They acted as if they could take on an Apatosaurus, but in the middle of a fight run away as if the devil was attacking them. He followed the beach down a ways, looking for another dodo.

Along the beach, near a small group of Stegosaurus he saw something terrifying. It was the fresh carcass of a Tyrannosaurus rex. When he stabbed it with his knife, fresh blood came out, not clotted. James knew it had to have been killed within the last hour or two. James froze when he heard something rustling in the bushes. It sprung up on top of the T-rex carcass and hissed. It was a Utahraptor. James slowly backed off, but the Raptor wouldn't stop staring at him. he talked quietly while backing off. That's how you treat bears, but Raptors? The Raptor bobbed its head side to side as if evaluating this strange creature. It was light brown with light blue spines on its neck and tail. It wanted the T-rex meat, and was challenging James for it. James backed off, and when he was about 50 feet away, the Raptor began tearing into the carcass, voraciously eating the meat. When the Raptor's back was turned he ran away as fast as he could.

He returned to Ark Village to see Shadow running from two huge Sarcosuchus. James found himself running too. They climbed up a steep rocky hill, where the crocs turned back and slid back into the water.

Shadow looked at James, "They just straight up attacked me! There were two. The one in front saw me but the one behind me didn't see me, but it came anyway."

James shook his head, checked on Clive in his little pen, and waited until the next day to look for another dodo. When he returned to his own house, he decided to form a plan. He, Rhino, and Shadow had all toyed with the idea of building a small base near Lake Lore. As he thought about it, he realized more and more that it really was a great idea. First, they'd be able to build a farm there, and second, it would be a place of solitude where they could tame dinosaurs in relative isolation. He decided to have a meeting with Shadow and Rhino the next day and follow through with the plan.


	6. T-Rex Encounter

The light poured in from the small window in James' hut. He packed up the last of the narcoberries he had in his inventory. He was setting out to find a Parasaurolophus to tame. Once he found one, he'd set out with Shadow and Rhino to help tranquilize it. He slung a crude bow and arrow over his shoulder and he opened the door.

It was hot outside, and the tropical sun beamed down on him intensely. He began walking down the beach. His thoughts turned to the mightiest dinosaur he knew of in Ark Island, the Tyrannosaurus. He'd always wanted to tame one, and even more so when Shadow's old tribe had come on emissary with a T-rex. He was coming down the beach when all the sudden he found the Rex. James cautiously approached the beast, keeping out of its way. Suddenly the dinosaur let out a massive roar and suddenly lurched back. It was fighting a Triceratops, who charged the Rex. James watched, awestruck by the spectacle.

The Tyrannosaurus roared and charged forward. The Triceratops bellowed and hunkered down defensively. The Tyrannosaurus lunged and clamped its jaws down on the Triceratops' frill. The Triceratops jerked its head back and forth before the Tyrannosaurus let go, blood dripping down its salivating maw. The Triceratops backed up closer and closer. James tried to turn and run when the Tyrannosaurus whirled around. James was too close to the Rex, and the Triceratops, who was now next to James, spun around. The dinosaur's tail smacked James in the head. He reeled back with the pain exploding in his skull. He was now in the midst of the fight, jammed between a large boulder, and the two battling dinosaurs. The pain cleared enough to him to get back further from the dinosaurs.

"God help me," he mumbled to himself.

Then, the huge tail of the T-rex slammed into him and everything faded away.

He woke up in a large pit. The pain was immense, and he lay back down, breathing heavily. He heard somebody walking to the place where the Rex had fought, but he couldn't hear them, as they were making a dreadful racket earlier.

James cried out, "Help!"

he then saw the person he most wanted to see clamber up to him. It was his friend, Shadow. Shadow took him back to the camp on his Triceratops he had taken.

After wrapping his head in bandages, and taken a healing medicine, James felt better.

"Thanks Shadow," James told him, "Thanks for looking for me. You are a good friend."

"No problem James. What exactly happened?"

"The Triceratops ended up smacking me in the head with its tail, and later the T-rex's tail ended up in my face."

"You're lucky you escaped with your life." said Shadow.

Shadow chuckled and showed James his leg. There was a large scar running down it. James had noticed it before but didn't ask how he got it.

"A Carnotaurus swiped me with its horn when I was about 17 years old. I was doing exactly what you were doing."

James chuckled, "Well, at least you got a scar with your story. All I got was a bruise and a migraine…"

A few days later, James was on the beach, looking at the ocean. There was a large object in the water. When he got a good look at it, he saw it was a shark. He decided to go out to it and get some meat. He swam to it, seeing it wasn't very far out, and the water was shallow. He swam out for a few minutes and came up to it. It was a juvenile Megalodon, and after gathering some raw meat from it, he looked below the surface. A shark was following him. He swam out as fast as he could, dropping the shark meat. The shark turned out to be going for the meat, since it was dripping with blood. He climbed up to the beach, and ran away from the water. One more fishing trip that a Megalodon had ruined.

Later, he returned to base. He got on his Parasaurolophus, Paris, and met McClure, who was building another base for the tribe. It was close to the forest, and they had plans to start a farm there.

He started up some conversation with McClure, "Who is with you?"

"Rhino will be helping there."

"Tell Rhino thank you for the saddle for me."

He patted the saddle on Paris he was riding on. Shadow had been the one that had tamed the Parasaurolophus for James. They were now along the shores of Lake Lore.

McClure looked ahead, "There's a Sarcosuchus up ahead."

James saw it and sighed, "I think we'll be alright, it's attacking a Parasaurolophus now."

They passed it without any trouble.

An hour later they came to the base. It was a partially unfinished wood house. It was on the edge of a steep slope, which melted into the shores of Lake Lore. On the other side was thick woodland, where they had already planted sugarcane plots and berry patches. Mejoberry and Azulberry were the two types planted. McClure had told James to harvest wood, and lots of it. He then headed off towards the lake, to find some tough trees. As he headed down the hill, he was suddenly enraptured by the sight. There was a herd of Triceratops and Stegosaurus in the lower portions of the Lake, feasting on water weed just inside the shore. He smiled, but his smile quickly vanished when he saw the tail of a Sarcosuchus going into the water.

After carefully bypassing the Lake, he got far away from the place the Sarcosuchus had went into, and began using his axe to chop as much wood as he was able. He chopped wood until dark, and then returned to the base to drop it all off. The woodland was dark and mysterious. He could see the base well before he reached it. Rhino and McClure had put campfires all around it. Shadow was there as well. Shadow met him just outside the base.

"Wood?"

"A lot of it!" responded James.

He dropped the wood down outside the entrance to the base. He also retrieved his hammer and chisel from the pack on Paris. He wanted to help, but he wasn't quite as experienced in building as Rhino, who was the tribe's renowned repairman and builder. Although he couldn't make a wooden wall, he did know how to fix a wall with thatch and fiber. Holding the torch in his hand, he looked up at the starry sky, and saw Rhino coming towards him.

"I need some thatch," asked Rhino.

James handed him some thatch.

Rhino looked with a sly look in his eyes, and said, "Here James, you are in charge of placing this part of the wall."

Going towards the back of the structure, he saw a place where a wall was visibly needed. A wooden wall was propped up against the structure.

An hour later, James hammered the last stake into the wall. It was a major achievement for him.

Rhino came by, "I may consider hiring an assistant carpenter."

James chuckled, "Sorry Rhino, you fit the job far better than I would."

Several more hours of building and hammering, and the stars had disappeared back into space, and the first dark blue light of morning was creeping up into the sky. Rhino was talking to himself, an inventory sheet in his powerful hand.

"600 more wood planks for the wall and ceiling…I could get that and Shadow could get some stone. We should have it done in a few more weeks…"

James interrupted Rhino's thoughts. "Are we just making this entire place right now?"

Rhino took one last glance at the sheet and responded, "Probably not all of it but I'd like to get a good portion of it done."

After they all took a rest for several hours, they returned back to the base. James and Shadow both chopped trees down together, lugging off blocks of wood for the base. In the middle of work, James' axe-head broke. After taking an hour to fasten another spare head to the axe, he returned to work.

He met Rhino in the woods, and was just about to chop another tree when Rhino stopped him.

"Stop!" Rhino shouted.

James looked up, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Rhino stated, "We just got enough wood, so save your energy for building."

Then, Rhino disappeared over the hill. James was just turning back to base when he heard loud footsteps coming towards him. Not human footsteps, dinosaur footsteps. But when he saw Rhino's head he sighed. He was riding Paris. Rhino loved dinosaurs, and he had tamed several, but he just couldn't seem to tame the skittish Parasaurolophus.

James yelled, "What're you doing on Paris?"

Rhino laughed, "Paris is the only Parasaurolophus that likes me!"

James knew Rhino was good with animals, and didn't mind Paris being ridden by him.

"Make sure you put him back in the pen when you're done riding!" He called after Rhino.

After going back to the base he found McClure. He hadn't attended the building of the base the day before, he came up riding a Raptor.

"McClure!" shouted James, "a Raptor?!"

McClure had tamed a Raptor while they were building. He named it Sandstorm. It looked amazing. It was tan with an orange stripe running down its side.

McClure, who had a mischievous look on his face said, "I'll help building now."

Rhino came back up with Paris, "You can take him back to the village if you need to; I'll be camping here for the night."

James nodded, thanked Rhino and returned to the forest to get more wood. As he went down to the riverbank, there was a herd of about 15 Parasaurolophus, and Paris went down, feeling quite comfortable around them. James dismounted Paris and began chopping wood. Rhino had asked to chop some more wood for the ceiling, since he needed to draw plans for it. He had plans to build a storage loft in the base building. He had cleared a nice sized portion of the forest, but stacked the wood in a large pile and left it, as Rhino was going to bring one of the Stegosaurs to pull it, since Paris was not quite strong enough. Looking down at Lake Lore, he saw a Stegosaurus there and watched as it lumbered along the shore. Then, he returned back to the base.

The ceiling for the first level, and floor for second was now finished. The back however was left unfinished. He had noticed Shira was becoming more and more happy and contented. He felt as if she was coming around, and he was happy to have helped. After taking a satisfying sigh, he mounted Paris and returned back to Ark Village.


	7. Taming a Raptor

A week later, James went up to the base at Lake Lore. He mulled around until nightfall, and after repairing the base a bit, he heard footsteps and looked outside. He saw a Raptor and yelled in surprise, but Rhino came from behind it.

"Got this one yesterday."

James was shocked, "You tamed a Raptor? Is that why you weren't up here yesterday?"

Rhino nodded, "Now McClure won't be able to brag about Sandstorm constantly!"

James laughed. McClure had been a pretty big showoff about Sandstorm, seeing she was the tribe's first tamed Raptor.

"What did you name it?" James asked.

"Batya," responded Rhino.

James looked around in the cabinets. Arrows, bows, and a dodo egg! He'd never seen a dodo egg before. Eggs were extremely scarce where they were. It was white with grey spots and was about the size of a baseball. He went outside and rode around on Paris. He looked in his saddlebags and looked around. Stone picks, berries, and most bizarre, a recipe to make chili.

Rhino had told James he needed some wood for some new walls he would add the base. So he went out and chopped some more trees with his hatchet. It was dawn, and he had slept well last night. He just wanted a Raptor now that everybody else had one it seemed. He went down to the lake shore and collected some stone, which Rhino also needed. He looked across Lake Lore to see Rhino, Shadow and David, another tribe member, chasing after a wild Raptor on their Raptors. David was on his Raptor on the shore James was on. James jogged over to David, who was on his Raptor, Gannet.

"What's going on?" James said, "You guys going after another Raptor?"

David smiled and replied, "We're taming a Raptor for you."

James was speechless. These were the same men who were frightened out of their wits about Raptors when they first came to the island were now taming a Raptor for somebody else.

David looked ahead, "We're doing unto others James, It's tan, a male, has a thick upper jaw. Looks really nice! We scouted it out a few days ago. It stuck to the same routes most days."

James shook David's hand and said, "Thanks David, I really appreciate that! Who's with you? I see Rhino and Shadow."

David looked over, "Rhino and Shadow are with me, McClure didn't show up. The guy's off with Sandstorm exploring the Great Blue Yonder somewhere. Well, I'm off to help, I'll come and get you once we've tranquilized it."

James decided to get some general supplies to help tame a Raptor. He knew he would need narcoberries. These berries packed a dizzying punch. When eaten, and some Ark tribe members found this out the hard way, they cause a dizziness fit before causing the consumer to fall down unconscious for a while. If consumed in large amounts it was deadly. They were black, and about the size of a grape. They were also the main ingredient for narcotics, which were sedatives that would knock out the thing that consumed it.

James searched for some so he could give it to the Raptor. He would smear some on the tip of an arrowhead to make it a tranquillizer dart. James looked back to the opposite shore. He didn't see any of the men. He looked down his beach and all he saw was an Ankylosaurus about 200 yards down. He never trusted Ankylosaurs. They'd leave you alone if you returned the favor, but if you got in their way they'd turn into wrecking balls that held some serious grudges.

David came over by himself.

"We got it!" he said excitedly.

James ran over and saw a tranquilized Raptor on the ground. It looked just like how David had described it. it was a beautiful Raptor, with a broad upper jaw and spines along its neck and tail. James couldn't help laughing excitedly.

David bent down and looked at it, "We have to be sure it's settled down before we wake it up. Don't wake it up OK?" he smiled.

David got back up and looked at James, then the Raptor.

"You tranquilize it, and then when it wakes up you blow on this Raptor call. If you blow a certain way it will basically tell the Raptor you're a friend, and that you're the pack leader."

David showed James how to do that call, which had a haunting sound to it. Raptors are extremely intelligent, and this one was going to wake up soon, so James went and fed it a few more narcoberries.

"Keep giving it narcotics, and if you run out," David said, "then go back and collect some more of those narcoberries."

The Raptor lifted up its head dizzily, and looked like it was chewing something, before its eyes rolled back into its head, and it fell back asleep. It was normal for an animal to wake up for a few seconds when affected by the narcoberries.

David told James he had to leave, and James replied, "Don't worry I'll watch him, I'm not letting this one go!"

David gave James a friendly slap on the back before mounting Gannet and riding off. James was now alone. He looked at the Raptor call in his hand. David had described the call as, enchanting, or seductive, and that it had trained all the other Raptors in the tribe. Hopefully this Raptor would be tamed the same way.

After about 10 minutes the Raptor was still sound asleep, and James saw three tribemates coming towards him on their Raptors.

"I'll be there soon," James thought to himself.

It was Shadow, Rhino and David. Rhino came up on Batya, Shadow on Ronen, and David on Gannet. They had come to see how things were coming along.

Rhino asked, "What's the name of your Raptor?"

"I don't know. I'll think of one when I tame it."

he looked at his friend's Raptors. Ronen was green, Gannet was a fierce red-orange, and Batya was a deep red.

James chuckled, 'This is like comparing cars.' he thought to himself.

James was wandering through the bush to collect more narcoberries. He found stimberries, tintoberries, amarberries, and azulberries, but no narcoberries. James kept thinking of a name. He wasn't sure what kind of name would work. They either sounded too crazy or too cliched. He went back to the Raptor, still sleeping on the dirt. He kept looking at his friend's Raptors, knowing he'd soon have his own, but staring at his friend's "corvettes" was just too tempting. He liked Ronen, the name and the Raptor. Why couldn't he think of a name?

He went back to the bush for another go at looking for narcoberries. All his thoughts were consumed with how awesome he'd look on top of a Raptor, blazing through the bush as fast as a Raptor could go, which was quite fast.

He went back down to the Raptor, and everybody had left. He thought he'd lost the Raptor for a second, but found him. There was a bush right in the Raptor's face. James removed it and could see the Raptor's head more clearly. It began to rain. He kept looking at the Raptor. It should wake up soon. He wanted to bring his hide boots since his cloth ones were nearly worn out, but the base was quite a distance away on foot, and he didn't want to leave the Raptor.

After another half hour David came back on Gannet carrying something big in his hands. He dropped it down at James' feet. It was a Raptor saddle. James looked excited, thanked David for the saddle and carefully put it on the Raptor with David's help. David hung around for a few more minutes.

James joked, "I'm getting the feeling you don't trust me with this Raptor!"

David laughed and kept looking at it. "It should wake up real soon. We may have given it a touch too many narcoberries."

He kept looking for more narcoberries. He needed more in case things got out of hand when the Raptor woke up. He looked down the beach and saw Rhino and David talking on their Raptors. They were quite a distance away. He was interrupted from his thoughts when the Raptor woke up.

He fumbled for his Raptor caller. The Raptor looked at him and hissed. James blew the call out. This startled the Raptor, who then listened intently. James finished the call and waited to see what would happen. The Raptor's neck spines bristled. Then, the Raptor got on all fours, and laid down on the ground. James reached out and touched the Raptor. It didn't flinch, it actually growled similar to a cat purring. James laughed quietly. He suddenly saw its name come in his head as if through a revelation.

"I'm going to name you Barry!"

The Raptor simply hissed and stood up. James tried mounting. The Raptor surprisingly offered up no resistance. He then spurred it forward towards where Rhino and David were. They both cheered as Barry sprinted up the hill.

They all returned to the base at Lake Lore happily, with a new dinosaur to add to the tribe. They all had a feast that night in celebration of James' new Raptor. James went riding for the rest of the next day, as he returned to Ark Village. When he arrived, he met Shira on her own mount: a Carnotaurus! The large horned Theropod roared as James approached. Shira grinned and laughed on her new mount.

"How did you tame it?!" shouted James.

"I tamed it myself. James, I'm very good around animals, how are giant scary reptiles any different?"

James huffed. It was whitish green, and very pretty to look at.

What's it's name?"

"Her names is Shullershy."

James nodded, "Good name. I like it."

Shira looked at James' Raptor, "And your new mount?"

"His name is Barry."

Shira raised an eyebrow, "Why Barry?"

James shrugged, "It hit me as a good name."

Shira shook her head. "Well I have to get a Raptor too."

"Well I know how to tame one. Why don't we go out and find you one."

Shira nodded, smiled and said, "That sounds like a good idea James, let's go."


	8. Taming a T-Rex

James woke up, refreshed and ready. It was 5:00 in the morning, and he mounted Paris, and headed for the base at Lake Lore. He got there a few hours into the afternoon. There were several people there. Rhino was there, and so was Shira, who actually smiled when James approached, a trend that James was very happy to see. Rhino looked at the water through his spyglass he had crafted.

"Arrgh, I can see a ship!" he said, in such a terrible pirate accent James laughed.

"That's your pirate accent?!" `

Rhino chuckled, "Here James, take this, you may need it."

He handed James a fine bow, and a quiver of arrows.

Taming a T-rex won't be easy."

Ever since James had almost died by the T-rex being attacked by a Triceratops, he had wanted to tame one. This was his chance. James looked at the arrows.

"Who made these?" he asked.

"McClure made them. He won't be coming today."

James had brought his Raptor, Barry, and Rhino brought his, Batya. He entered the base where Rhino was looking in the supply cabinets in the downstairs section. He was going through all the supplies they would need. There was some stuff in the cabinet James wasn't expecting. A dodo egg, and as he rummaged around, he pulled out the skeletal arm of a Tyrannosaurus, which startled him.

"Rhino," said James with a disturbed voice, "What do you have a T-Rex arm for!?"

Rhino chuckled and shrugged. Answer enough.

A bit later, Shadow arrived with his Raptor, Ronen. Shadow asked the goal, and Rhino explained the plan to tame a T-rex. James then ambled around, going down the hill, and looking at the base from the bottom of the hill, up at the soft glow of the firelight. Shadow came down to join him.

"Ready?" asked Shadow.

"Very." replied James, eager to see what a tamed T-Rex could do.

When the two of them returned to Base, Shira was busy making clothes, as some of the men's clothes had been completely soiled. The two of them were alone in the room.

"Shira," said James, "When you told me thank you by the village gate, what were you thanking me for?"

She looked up, her black hair seeming to flicker in the light of the torches.

"For letting me see." she said, "I was so absorbed in self-pity I couldn't go on. You woke me up. It was just that I felt so alone here. Even back at the ESC I felt alone. There was just some things that had happened in my life...Things i don't even want to revisit. But you really helped me James, whether you realized it or not."

James was satisfied. "Look what we've built here Shira. We're going to make it. Heck, we have made it."

Shira laughed quietly, looking at the partially repaired clothing on her lap. It helped James to know he had helped her.

She looked back up at James, "When are you going out?"

James sighed, "Tomorrow morning, the Tyrant will be ours."

Shira raised an eyebrow, "And what makes you so sure?"

James held up their secret weapon. "This."

When morning came, James mounted Barry and went to get some meat. There was a single red Parasaurolophus on the beach, and Barry screeched loudly and tapped his sickle toe claw into the sandy shores of Lake Lore. The Parasaurolophus honked loudly and ran off. Barry went into attack mode, and chased after his prey. James knew to dismount when a Raptor went in for the kill. After a brief struggle, Barry killed the Parasaurolophus, and James whistled Barry back. Barry stood by while James cut out the edible parts. While James was hacking away on the carcass of the Parasaurolophus Barry nudged James.

"Just wait there sir, a little later and you can eat all you want."

Back at the base, Paris was browsing on some low branches, and Barry, who had eaten his fill, was tied up beside Ronen. He then entered the base building, and climbed up on top of the roof, where the crafting table was. He built some wooden wall parts. Rhino had asked for two for the base, and since Rhino had taught him how to make walls, he built them, and placed them around the roof.

They still had to build around what was now the roof and make a ceiling for that as well. Once that was complete, it would be a two story structure. He had been working on it for so long he didn't realize Rhino, Shira, and Shadow had left. He saw their footsteps in the beach heading west. He jumped on Barry and followed them. When he met up with them, he saw them hiding in the bush. Shadow motioned for James to be quiet and slow. James didn't need long to see why. A large Tyrannosaurus was crashing through the forest. This was it. This was the T-rex they would tame.

After getting into position, Shadow, who was the resident dinosaur expert, explained how to tame a Tyrannosaur.

"You must train it to respect you," he began, "shoot it with an arrow treated with this secretion. It causes extreme pain. The pain isn't fatal though. The T-Rex is a pretty smart dinosaur. If it sees you shooting it with the arrow, it will associate you with extreme pain. This will guarantee the monster not eating you. Next, train the T-rex to accept a saddle. Feed the T-rex meat after training it to respect you. This will get the Rex to associate you with an incoming meal. Then, after all this is done, it will eventually become loyal. I'm very curious to see all we can accomplish with one."

The T-Rex shook its massive head and let out a low guttural growl.

Rhino moved in with his bow and arrow. He tipped it with the treated arrowhead, and then gave some of the arrows to James. Rhino bravely yelled out, alerting the T-Rex to his whereabouts. The Tyrannosaurus looked in their direction and roared a bone shaking roar. Rhino loosed his arrow, which sent the T-Rex reeling back in pain. The T-rex screamed, falling on the ground. After getting up, the thoroughly enraged T-rex went for Rhino, who loosed another arrow, sending the T-rex doubling over again.

Rhino shouted to James, "Shoot it with your arrow! Don't touch the arrowhead!"

James loosed and the arrow hit the T-rex, who lunged back at the searing pain. They stopped. The Tyrannosaur, who wasn't fully grown at 30 feet, was an adolescent, as Shadow had said juveniles were much easier to tame. The T-rex roared and looked at the two men. James had Barry if anything went wrong, and Shadow had brought his Triceratops. The T-rex stared, but didn't attack, cowering slightly. This was going very well.

A few days later, the process was completed. They now had a tamed Tyrannosaurus in their tribe. James returned to the base, where the Tyrannosaurus was kept. They had named it Tyros. James decided to sleep at the base. It had been a long day, and he didn't want to travel another few hours to the village. The base was empty. Nobody was there; he was alone. He lay down in the bed and slept.

He awoke when rain began falling outside. It was only about 2:00 in the morning and still very dark. He went outside. It was a light sprinkle. Taking a torch in his hand he saw Barry and Paris were still outside, with Tyros chained up to a huge tree, sleeping. He looked towards another tree and saw a green Raptor. It was Ronen, Shadow's Raptor. He didn't want to shout, for fear of waking up Tyros.

Although Tyros was tamed, he was still unpredictable at this stage. He may kill a man if startled, which would eventually wear off when he got used to being around people. Once again he looked up at the sky, but tonight there were no stars, just a dark cloud.

He remembered that night with Shira. It was the first time he had seen Shira happy. He sighed. Shira had been up at the base occasionally, though she never stayed overnight there, or camped there.

He never found Shadow, but he was out there somewhere.

Heading back in the house, he drank from the cistern in the back, and went upstairs. While James, Rhino and Shadow were taming Tyros, McClure and Shira had been continuing work on the base building. James took the ladder up, and looked around. The ceiling still needed to be built, but the upstairs wall was complete. They also must've eaten upstairs, as there was a campfire on a flat stone, with a cooking pot. He also saw that they had walled off another room, with a door leading to it. He entered and saw something he was very excited about. There was a large stone brick oven, with smoking coals still inside. There were also several storage cabinets, and when he looked inside he saw jerky, and other food items. So this was to be their kitchen. In the one cabinet however, there were clothes; probably the clothes Shira had made last week. Suddenly, he heard a loud bellow, and men yelling.

Running into the forest with a torch in his hand James wondered if Tyros had gotten out of hand. But the bellow didn't sound like a T-rex's; more like a Triceratops' when he thought about it. After running about 2,000 yards from base, he saw Rhino and Shadow, and David proudly looking over an unconscious Triceratops.

"What did you do?" asked James.

"We tranquilized it and now we're keeping it," said Shadow.

James was grateful that a Triceratops wasn't hard to train; it simply needed to be taught to bear a saddle and that was it. Rhino and Shadow looked it over. It was quite big. Not an enormous one, but a big one nonetheless.

"Go ahead back to the base James," Rhino said, "We can cover taming this thing."

James went back to the base, looking forward to seeing Rhino struggle to put a saddle on the beast.

The next morning James went out to ride on Barry for a bit. The Raptor hissed contentedly when he saw his master coming. Although Raptors are deadly when wild, when tamed they're as loyal as hound dogs. He unleashed the Raptor, mounted, and went down to the shores of Lake Lore. They were barren of life, quite rare for the lake, usually exploding with Triceratops' or Stegosaurs. The animals were probably all scared off by Tyros. There was however, an Apatosaurus in the distance, which he decided to go towards. Suddenly, he saw a Dilophosaurus cross their path. The spines on Barry's neck bristled and he growled. The Dilophosaurus screeched and ran towards Barry, who made short work of the little nuisance.

James patted Barry on the neck, "Good boy," he said.

Barry shook his head and they continued on. About two miles down they saw a group of three Apatosaurs. He saw what looked like a T-Rex, and decided to get a bit closer to the action, but not too close, as a misaimed swipe from the tail of an Apatosaurus could be fatal. It was what he suspected: a huge Tyrannosaurus going after an Apatosaurus. The T-rex roared and tried to bite the Apatosaurus' side. The Sauropod swiped with its tail narrowly missing the T-rex's head. The T-rex roared and continued trying to attack. Suddenly the Apatosaurus swung again, and slammed its gigantic tail into the Tyrannosaurus' face. The T-rex almost did a backflip before crashing into the ground, dead.

James watched as the Apatosaurus' lumbered away. He decided to harvest the T-rex, as some T-rexes had prime meat on them. Prime meat is tastier, and healthier than regular meat. This T-rex had some prime meat on it. He couldn't harvest the whole thing, so he returned to the base and told Rhino and Shadow that a T-rex was downed a few miles down the Lake. The three men went out, after getting Shira and McClure to help. David had also come. He very rarely showed up, and James had only seen him a few times after getting stranded.

Later, they returned to base with enough meat and hide to last them for months. David went to the base with James, and they both noticed something odd. The front of the base had been painted blue. However, when he looked closer, the paint wasn't really paint, it was more like lumpy slat marks all over the building.

James wondered aloud, "Why was it painted blue? When did that happen?"

David shrugged his shoulders, and looked at it. "The only way to get blue paint is to get blue dye from those azulberries."

When Shadow and the others returned, Shadow explained that he had painted it blue so it was easier to see.

James chuckled, "So you didn't really paint it you just slapped berries on it? Does this count as vandalism?"

The next day he heard a huge commotion near the base. It was Rhino, Shadow and David all yelling orders at Tyros. They were training it to smash through trees and rocks, in case they ever needed to do it. Tyros roared just as James came up, and a huge boulder exploded into pieces. James yelled, startled, and jumped back. He was riding Barry. James decided to watch at a distance. They were at the forest edge, a mile or so from base.

"Is he just destroying everything?" James yelled.

Shadow, who had jogged up to where he was panted, "Pretty much…he just won't do what we ask. We tell him to bash one rock and he goes to another. We still have a lot of work to do."

James looked back at the spectacle in front of him. There seemed like a perfect riot was going on in the jungle. He chuckled as the comedy of it all started to sink in. Here were four little people angry because one of the greatest predators to ever walk the earth wasn't doing their bidding. It was a mouse yelling at the cat scenario if there ever was one.

Shadow looked at him, "What's so funny?"


	9. Cold Blooded Murder

The water sparkled like silver coins in the sunlight. James mopped his forehead and looked over to the opposite side of Lake Lore, where he saw an Apatosaurus across the lake, stomping around, eating leaves. That's what he wanted to tame. They had a Triceratops, they each had a Raptor, and they had a Stegosaurus. They even had a Tyrannosaurus. The only thing really lacking was a Sauropod or a Pterosaur.

He heard that a gigantic Pterosaur called Quetzalcoatlus, lived on the island. While the species known from the fossil record had a 40 foot wingspan, this type had a wingspan and body size of a jumbo jet. There were mammoths, and dinosaurs still undiscovered. He wanted to see them all. He heard rumors passed around by other people about new dinosaurs; Kaprosuchus a small land crocodile, Giganotosaurus a huge Theropod even bigger than T-rex, Baryonyx, a smaller relative of Spinosaurus and others. But none of these had yet been found.

They had built an irrigation pipe down to the lake from the base building, so that water could pool up in the building. You turned on a tap in the building, which sent up water from the lake. He walked back up to the base building with a load of berries and walked off to see how the Triceratops was doing. They had captured one less than 48 hours before, in the middle of the night. They were trying to put a saddle on it. It was knocked out, and the saddle was on its back. When it woke up, it would have to be trained to bear a rider. It was already tamed, and this was the hardest stage.

It was still dark, but getting towards morning, the first dark blue light of day was seeping into the night sky. He mounted Barry and went off to check on Tyros. He wasn't quite as unpredictable, and wouldn't fly off the handle at a sudden noise. He simply looked at James while lying on the ground. After smelling the air he lay back down and closed his eyes. After a few dim hours, morning bloomed, and James checked on the Triceratops. It was officially tamed, as Rhino was riding it.

He went up to Rhino, "How is it working out?"

Rhino looked over at James, "Oh it's going great here. We need to get you a Triceratops sometime! All you got is that Parasaur, a Dodo and a Raptor."

James nodded, "Well that's really all I need. I was thinking about trying to tame an Apatosaur earlier. We don't really have any giant dinosaurs like that."

Rhino mulled it over, "I'll ask Shadow if he's heard of any taming methods for those kinds of animals."

They talked over a bit more before James left Rhino to finish his work.

Tyros had gotten untied. He didn't wander, since he was now a loyal mount. Tyros would kill anything trying to hurt James or any of the tribe's members. James even patted Tyros' nose, where a wild T-rex would eat you without a second thought. Tyros was following James. Deciding to have a little fun, he walked around the base building. He was in awe of how one of the most feared apex predators in history would follow a man like him around like a puppy. Suddenly Tyros' stopped and wheeled around, looking at the tree line. Suddenly he and Batya rushed into the forest. Rhino must've whistled from inside the forest. David came out of the base building, wondering what the ruckus was about. A T-rex charging into the forest is no small noise. Rhino was in the woods and he had whistled. He looked over at the Raptors. They were in the stable attached to the base building: Barry, Ronen, Gannet and Sandstorm. Batya was in the forest with Rhino. Suddenly Batya came racing past, and Tyros was taking up the rear. Rhino came running out of the forest.

James went up to Rhino, "What happened?"

"A pack of Raptors were attacking me. Tyros got there just in the nick of time!"

James decided to go get some resources on Paris. He went and collected some berries. Down near the beach, he met McClure, David and Shadow all trying to train Trike, the new Triceratops, to down trees. He saw it topple over a pine tree. That would save a lot of energy and time chopping down trees. Now all they'd have to do would be to chop the already felled tree into burnable logs.

He walked over to where they were training. They would direct the Triceratops towards a tree, then shout a command and the Triceratops would ram into the tree and topple it, sometimes in several attempts. A Triceratops was extremely strong, and when it set its mind on something, it would see it through! Rhino was very pleased with it.

James came over to Rhino, who waved.

"How are things going?" asked James.

"About as well as they could! Man, this thing it strong!"

Right then the Triceratops slammed its skull into another tree, bellowing and roaring. Rhino and James both stepped back.

McClure shook his head, "I'm throwing away my axe!" he said.

Shadow laughed, "Go tame your own! Sandstorm can only do so much."

McClure raised an eyebrow, "But he can do enough!"

Rhino rolled his eyes. "There are so many dinosaurs in the island what's so special about Sandstorm?"

Sandstorm was McClure's pride and joy, and he rode him everywhere. He didn't have any other tamed dinosaurs that he knew of. The tree crashed to the ground, which is when Rhino called off Trike. Then they broke out the axes and began hacking away at the wood and cutting them into logs.

James went back to Ark Village for the week. And then the next week he headed back to Lake Lore. When he got back, he met Rhino. There were two Triceratops' now. One was named Alison according to Rhino. One of the Triceratops they had almost tamed, but it got in a fight with a Stegosaurus and they never saw it again. There was also a Pteranodon in the stables.

'Yes!' James thought to himself.

Now he could soar above the island, making exploration much easier. Rhino had named it Sky-dancer. After a few hours, Rhino went to bed, and Shadow did too.

When he went into his own bunk, he saw somebody in his desk writing something. He could only see the silhouette of the person against the flickering torchlight. He slowly went in and knocked. It was Shira.

James walked in and Shira smiled, "What are you doing here?"

Shira would occasionally come up to the base, but so far she hadn't stayed overnight for more than three nights. James was confused. What was she doing in his bunk?

She looked down, embarrassed, "You're the only one with a desk in his bunk, I was just writing a letter to my dad."

"You've been writing letters to him here?"

Shira nodded, "It gives me a little bit of home to think about."

James nodded. He could tell that she had been very close to her father.

She looked somber, "I miss him."

James understood. He put his arm around her.

Shira blushed, "I'm trying to come to terms with the fact I may never see him again." she said.

James sighed, "I'm sorry Shira."

There was a long pause.

James got up, "You can use my desk whenever you want to. I don't really even use it. I can move it into your bunk."

Shira shook her head, "Oh no it's yours I don't want-"

"Please." interrupted James, "I want you to take it. I really never use it."

Shira smiled slightly, "Alright James. Thank you, really. I appreciate that a lot."

He moved it into her bunk before saying goodnight. James didn't look behind as he left, but he could tell Shira had watched him go longer than she had before.

The next morning he headed out to David's base just across Lake Lore. It was on top of a cliff you could access from going behind and around. He got Barry out of the stable and they went out to check on him. They crossed the lake and James quickly filled up his water-skin. They climbed up the hill, and knocked on the wooden door. David wasn't home. Oh well, he usually explored in his spare time. When they went back down to Lake Lore James thought he saw something in the water, thrashing around. Then it stopped thrashing and the water stilled. When it bobbed up James realized it was a Pteranodon. It must've drowned.

Sometimes a Pteranodon will try to catch fish in the water, but splashes into the lake. Since it needs a solid takeoff surface, it may drown, encumbered by its huge wings. This must've been what happened to this unfortunate one. James let Barry drag it onto land. He took some of the hide on the wings, which could be useful. He also took some of the meat for Barry or the other Raptors to eat.

When he got back to the camp, Barry's neck spines bristled. As anybody with a tamed Raptor knows, when it bristles its spines, it's mad, and you'd better get out of its way! He dismounted and Barry flew into the camp, tangling with a Dilophosaurus. The pest bounded away and Barry bounded after it, but James whistled him back and he came up to the camp trotting. Tyros was still chained up to the tree and James threw him some of the Pteranodon meat and the Tyrannosaurus snapped it up. James entered the base after returning Barry to the stable. He ate some jerky and looked if anybody else was in. Rhino and Shira were both sleeping in their quarters. Taking an afternoon nap James supposed.

He decided to go exploring on Barry. He ran along the beach of Lake Lore and came upon a herd of Stegosaurs. One of them was lashing its spiked tail at a predator. Suddenly the predator flew backwards, obviously hit by one of the Stegosaurs. When he got closer he saw it was a Carnotaurus.

"Huh, got a little to close the action." James said.

He took some of the meat from it, and its horns as a trophy. There was also a small thatch base near the herd. It was just along the beach, and totally abandoned. The owners were either killed, or they had just moved on to greener pastures. There were also Ankylosaurs in the herd, like wildebeest in a herd of zebras. He looked inside the base, but nothing was there. It was utterly deserted. He wondered who built it, and if they were still alive. He didn't know how many other humans lived on this island. The only other tribe they knew of was the Dino Raiders, and they were a hostile tribe for whatever James could see.

He went back to Ark Village and while there he saw one of the villagers named Robert come towards him.

James saw him in the court, "Hello Robert," he said.

Robert told James to come closer. James noted he had a wild look in his eye.

"James," he said, "I found something very special near the Red Cliffs."

James got interested, "What is it?"

Robert said in a low voice, "I found emeralds! They're in a cave near the Red Cliffs!"

He held up one under his cloak. James' eyes widened and he nodded.

"Tonight, at midnight, we can gather the rest," Robert said with giddiness in his voice.

That night he crossed Lake Lore, and entered the forest. It wasn't a jungle, but a deciduous wood, with broad-leaved trees. He was riding Barry, and along the forest floor he saw a glint in the moonlight. He got off Barry, stooped down and scratched at the leaf litter. He picked up a shining green gem. It was an emerald! James quickly pocketed the stone, and saw Barry run after a Triceratops. James whistled sharply for Barry to come back, not at all wanting to fight a Triceratops. Barry obeyed and the Triceratops ran into the darkness of the wood. The moon was exceptionally bright, which is why Robert had planned to come out this particular night.

A few hours later he heard a roar close behind them. It was another Carnotaurus. James yelled in terror and spurred Barry on, who sprinted as fast as he could. Luckily, the Carnotaurus didn't follow, and they continued on. He had reached the meeting point, near was the mouth of the cave, which Robert had given the coordinates to. There were several Stegosaurs near the cave mouth grazing close to Barry and James. James got out of their way and waited. Robert wasn't there quite yet, so he stayed put. When Barry's spines bristled on the back of his head and he uttered a low growl James got very uneasy.

He patted Barry on the side of the head, "Easy Barry, easy…don't attack yet."

There was nothing. With a tremendous crash a Carnotaurus burst into the night. It was attacking one of the Stegosaurs. The Stegosaurus bellowed and swung its thagomizer spikes into the air, but it missed the Carnotaurus. James was thrown off Barry as the Stegosaurus swung its massive tail. Barry let out a scream and James stood up to see what happened. Barry had leapt onto the Carnotaurus and was ripping at its thick hide. The horned creature roared and swung its head, but couldn't reach Barry. James stood back, and a Stegosaurus swiped the Carnotaurus, and hit, sending the creature reeling back. But Barry was hit too. The Raptor went sailing into the air before slamming into a boulder. Barry shrieked in pain and collapsed on the ground.

The Carnotaurus was down, and so was Barry. The Stegosaurs all rumbled away, leaving James alone with Barry. He stooped down. Barry was breathing heavily. His ribcage was uneven and broken. James saw that the worst had happened.

"Easy boy...Easy," James said softly.

Barry groaned and laid his head down on the ground. James, with trembling hands removed his bridle and harness. Barry looked up at James and uttered a heart wrenching low howl. A tear formed in James' left eye. This was it. He watched as the last breath left his companion. Breaking down, James hunched over, and cried.

After burying his Raptor in the cool mossy dirt, he turned and began making back for Ark Village. He sobbed most of the way, grieving for his dead companion, who had died trying to save James' life. The Stegosaurus had hit Barry in the ribcage with its spines, trying to hit the Carnotaurus. James didn't bother thinking over the "what-if" questions. They didn't serve a useful purpose on this island. He didn't bother waiting for Robert, and he didn't care either way.

He saw the distant silhouette of Ark Village in the foreground when he saw a person on a Raptor riding towards him. He was near the cliffs where David's base was. He watched as the person strode towards him on his Raptor. James looked at the man. He threw down a pile of wood on the ground. James was confused, but he left the wood alone, and continued down to Ark Village.

Suddenly, the man yelled, "Hey! Get back here!"

there was a very angry tone in his voice. What could he be mad at him for? The man and his Raptor charged at James. James, who happened to be carrying his stone hatchet, took it out, and faced the man. He didn't offer any explanation, but he ordered his Raptor to kill James.

"What?!" James yelled, "Sir, why?! Why?! I'm friendly towards you!"

The man kept circling James, trying to get his Raptor to attack him. James dodged the Raptor and held his hatchet up threateningly.

"What are you doing!? If you want me to kill your Raptor I will!"

James was angry, frightened, and confused at the same time. He had just lost a friend, why was this person doing this! What had he done?

James tried intimidation, "I have a T-rex in my tribe. If you lay a hand on me, I or my friends will come with our T-rex and attack you."

That made no difference to the man.

James tried to get information from the man, "Who are you?!"

the man replied, "Hijikata, from the Dino Raiders tribe. You'll be sorry you did this!"

James was in the dark about the foul deed he had supposedly committed, but at least he knew this person's name, and the tribe he was from. He looked Japanese, with black hair, and a scar on his eyebrow. His Raptor came up and leapt on top of James. James was pinned under its weight and couldn't reach his hatchet. He was about to be killed by Hijikata when another Raptor bowled Hijikata's over. It was Shadow, on Ronen. Shadow attacked the enemy Raptor mercilessly, and drove it away. Hijikata was also pinned by Shadow.

Hijikata glared at James, "I don't understand."

What? What was there not to understand?

He continued, "You stole my wood."

James hadn't touched the man's wood, and he was confused exactly what the man meant. They let him go, which turned out to be a bad choice later. And as he'd see later, the Dino Raiders were more of a threat than James could have ever thought.

When he returned to Ark Village, everybody felt sorry for James. They had all loved Barry just as much as James did. They held a little kind of funeral, though James felt badly he put some of the villagers in a sad frame of mind, though it touched him that the village cared about him so much. Shadow, Rhino and Shira all offered their condolences, but later that night, the village met to discuss the meeting with Hijikata. He wasn't finished with Hijikata. He decided to get a posse, as Shadow, Rhino, David and the others were thoroughly outraged by this stranger's murder attempt. No…things were not over with the Dino Raiders.


	10. Reckoning Time

Just outside the base at Lake Lore James, Rhino and Shadow had gathered. They were there to track down the lunatic that had almost murdered James in cold blood.

Rhino was outraged and puzzled by the story, "So he almost murdered you because he thought you stole his wood?"

James nodded, "I don't think that's why he went after me. He knew I didn't touch it, that was just what he said when you showed up. I get the feeling there's something more sinister about this person."

Rhino continued, "I don't like this. They aren't all that far away from the village anyway. That maniac could come and murder anybody he pleased if he gets daring enough."

Shadow spoke, "I came to your rescue when I saw him attacking you from the base. I didn't have to look that far. I mounted Ronen, came over and saved you in the nick of time."

James shook his head, "No…we have to deal with this. He said he was from the Dino Raiders tribe. The same people that attacked you and Shadow way back when Ark Village was first founded."

Rhino and Shadow looked at each other. They both had lived on the island for much longer and knew all too well of this tribe.

James looked at both of them, "Who exactly are the Dino Raiders? I know you've mentioned that they're a warring tribe but where did they come from?"

"The Dino Raiders were once members of our old tribe," Rhino said, "They were just like the rest of us, but there was one named Apollo, named after the Greek god, who wanted to become a warring tribe. Apollo gathered men, and broke off from our tribe, becoming a warring tribe. They've raided the Rockarts multiple times in the past. They are a deadly tribe. I understand a bit more now that I know what tribe he's from."

They all agreed. It was time for some business with the Dino Raiders.

They each set out on their Raptors, James was riding Gannet, David's Raptor, and Rhino was riding Batya. Shadow came up the rear riding Ronen.

Shadow asked again, "So where are we going? Where's he at?"

James pointed slightly southeast, "He went into the forest and I scouted it out a bit yesterday. He has a house in a field near the place he attacked me at."

They walked through the forest, keeping their eyes peeled. For all they knew the Dino Raiders may have had an ambush set up. There was little signs of life. All was quiet. Soon, they came out of the forest and into a clearing.

There was a large, dark grey cloud brooding in the near horizon. It just so happened to be above the Dino Raider's base. The posse approached. Was anybody in? James, Rhino and Shadow cautiously stalked up to the base, keeping a low profile. When they looked at the house, a man came out of the house.

"It's Hijikata!" James hissed.

They formulated a strategy.

James began, "Look, don't kill anybody unless you have to. I will deal with Hijikata. We'll take any resources we can raid from their base. If somebody tries to kill you, defend yourselves. I don't care about anybody else, I just want Hijikata."

Suddenly a man tore out of the house.

James yelled, "Hey! He's going behind the cliff! Get him!"

Rhino yelled and Shadow whooped as they rushed after the man. It didn't take long for the three to corner the man with their Raptors. James gritted his teeth. it wasn't Hijikata. The three Raptors were hunched, ready to pounce, tapping their sickle toe claws into the ground. The man stood his ground and pulled a spear from behind his back.

"Why are you trying to kill me?!"

"What's your name?" James demanded.

The man's eyes darted back and forth.

"I know who you're looking for. Hijikata isn't here. He has orders from Apollo."

He stabbed the air with his spear, "Leave me be or I will kill your Raptors."

The man stabbed the air close to Batya, who hissed, her neck spines bristling. Suddenly the man lunged forward, trying to spear Batya in the heart. The Raptor leapt out of the way. Shadow whistled sharply, and Ronen screeched, lunged, and bit down on the man's spear. The man tried to hold on, but the Raptor jerked it out of his hands before biting it in half. Shadow whistled again and Ronen jumped, pinning the man down without hurting told Rhino to bind him and leave him.

"Leave him here, we're looking for his friend." Shadow said darkly.

They returned to the Dino Raider base after leaving the man with his hands tied on the ground. He could untie himself. They went up to the house.

Rhino's voice boomed, "Hijikata! We know you're in there! You almost killed my friend James a few days ago! Now it's reckoning time!"

A voice came from the inside of the house, "What do you want here?"

"What's your name?"

No answer came. R

hino coaxed, "Listen…Come out and we'll talk."

The person inside responded, "No! I'll come out and you'll kill me! What do you take me for?"

Shadow said, frustrated, "We won't!"

Rhino continued, "Come out without any weapons and we'll do the same. We don't want any bloodshed we just want Hijikata. Your base is locked we can't get in anyway. Get up on the roof for all we care! We just want to see your face. What's your name! Tell us and we can talk!"

The man inside wasn't Hijikata. James didn't recognize his voice. No answer from inside. Coaxing time was over, now it was time to bring out force.

Rhino shouted, "Look, you can come out and tell us your name, and where Hijikata is. If you don't we can do this the hard way and break down the door and raid your base. Choose wisely!"

There was silence until the man inside finally broke down and said, "My name is Arnos; Hijikata is inside with me!"

Rhino was in no mood to mince words and said harshly, trying to intimidate Hijikata, "Alright you bloodthirsty murderer, you have two options! One: You pay us not to kill you, and swear to never come near our tribe again, or two, we take you prisoner and destroy everything here, base and supplies inside."

Harsh, but they weren't here to play around. A cold blooded killer near the tribe wasn't going to show them any mercy.

Arnos spoke again, "Quit your threatening! Don't touch me, my friend or our loot! Leave us alone you brutes!"

Rhino was getting increasingly annoyed, "Look, don't you dare act like we're in the wrong! You tried to murder my friend for something he didn't even do!"

Hijikata spoke up at last, "You fools can all leave! There's nothing you can do to me that Apollo can't. I would simply turn around and leave now. I should've killed your friend while I had the chance. I will not come out to meet you!"

He threw a knife out the window and it landed at James' feet.

James let out a frustrated sigh, "I told you we have a Tyrannosaurus in our tribe. That's not an empty threat. Come out or we will destroy your base. We mean business. I'm not sure what this Apollo can do, but he can't do it as soon as we can."

They decided to go up on the roof, where Hijikata kept his resources. They took some of his supplies and went back down. They weren't coming out. Time to break down the base.

Rhino yelled one last time, "Hijikata…This is your last chance! Come out or we'll destroy your base and take you prisoner! Don't think we won't!"

No answer.

Rhino turned back to get Tyros, when they caught a glimpse of Hijikata sprinting into the forest. James shouted for Shadow and Rhino to follow.

"He went into the jungle! Capture him!"

Rhino and Shadow followed, their Raptors growling. They followed him into the jungle, but lost him. They found a piece of Hijikata's clothing on the ground. The Raptors sniffed it and James told Gannet to follow the scent. The Raptors all barked and screeched before sprinting back into the jungle. The cloud began to pour down its load of rain. Lightning flashed and thunder exploded in the air. This wasn't good. It would wash away Hijikata's scent. Sure enough, the Raptors, which had been tearing through the jungle after Hijikata, stopped, smelled a large area, and looked up.

The scent was lost, and Hijikata was gone. Rhino decided to return to Hijikata's base, hiding in wait, and if Hijikata went back, Rhino could capture him. Shadow and James kept searching the forest. After searching for about an hour, the rain cleared up and the sun came out. They went along the beach, and saw two Apatosaurs lumbering along the sand. They kept looking until nightfall. The stars came out and they were still looking. They were in a large field, and all he could see were the dim silhouettes of a Triceratops and a Stegosaurus. Hijikata could be anywhere. They called off the search until morning.

They camped near the field's edge. There was a valley in front of them where he saw a group of Parasaurolophus and Triceratops grazing in the moonlight. Until the next morning then…

When they woke up they decided to return back to Hijikata's base. As they went back they kept combing the area. They entered a jungle and looked around. They combed and searched behind every rock and tree and in every ditch. Hijikata had to be somewhere within a 24 hour radius. He was also on foot, so he couldn't have gone very far.

When they heard a crash, James stepped back into a rock. A Carnotaurus burst out of the forest and attacked a Giant Turtle. It roared and tried to bite the turtle's shell, but the creature simply pulled into it and waited until the Carnotaurus gave up. They passed up the carnivore without any problems.

When they did, Shadow looked over at James and said, "He could be anywhere."

"Which is what scares me." James replied.

For all he knew, Hijikata could be aiming a knife right at his neck from a mere ten feet away. He kept scouring every direction, staring at things and startling at leaves that swayed. He was extremely paranoid, and with good reason. As he looked around, he kept having a nagging feeling that if Hijikata wasn't captured, he'd soon show his face in Ark Village.

They finally came to the edge of the forest and to the shores of Lake Lore. They were close to Hijikata's base. There was a Tyrannosaurus on the beach…not good. They had to avoid that. They went to the other way from the Tyrannosaurus, startling two Phiomia that hadn't seen them. They crossed and found out they were blocked by a muddy shore so slippery and sticky they would get stuck if they crossed. They decided to go back the way they came. They came up on the Carnotaurus after a short while; it was still trying to tackle the tortoise, but failed. It looked up at Shadow and James, deciding they looked like easier targets. They quickly sprinted away from the Carnotaurus, who gave up after a short while and turned back.

Now they had to find a way back to Hijikata's base from the mainland. There was quicksand on one shore, and a wild Tyrannosaurus on the other. James didn't feel like tackling either of those. James knew the general direction but Shadow didn't know where he was. They hadn't really been near this particular area of jungle before.

After a while they got back on track and returned to Hijikata's base, but nobody was there. Rhino had captured him as he tried to return to base during the storm. Hijikata decided to pay the ransom, and he swore never to come back to the base at Lake Lore on pain of death. In fact, when they spied out the base a few weeks later, it was abandoned. They were a bit puzzled on where he went though. Shadow met up with James a bit later.

"Well he's gone," Shadow said.

James looked Shadow and said worried, "But where to?"

Shadow looked down. He didn't know, and if there were any more Dino Raiders, Hijikata could've sent not only a nasty report on Ark Village, but also given away the location of Hijikata's base. It was something James didn't want to happen in the least.

When James returned to the base, he put his gear away and leaned against the wall. He smacked his fist into his other hand and muttered frustrated. He heard footsteps in the other room coming towards him. It was Shira.

"What happened?" she asked.

James sighed, "We went to their base, me Shadow and Rhino. We went and interrogated Hijikata but he was inside his base. He ended up escaping and running into the woods. You saw we captured him, but I'm not sure we should've let him go so easily."

Shira managed to make a weak smile. She was uneasy about the situation, and she had been terrified at the thought of James being murdered.

"Well it's over now."

James nodded, "I just don't feel good about this. I don't trust him, and I don't trust what he might be able to do."

Shira suddenly looked worried, "Are you saying that there's more of them?"

"Well he referred to himself as a member of the Dino Raiders tribe, I just...I don't know."

Shira walked over, "Don't worry James. Come on, it's late."

James nodded. No use worrying. Besides, everybody was alright. He'd just be watching over his shoulder a bit more from now on.


	11. The Pteranodon Search

James opened the door to a small cabinet he had in his house. There were several odds and ends inside. Trophies from various dinosaurs, blueprints, and a photograph of the ESC he had saved from the wreckage. There were a few new mementos he placed inside. He put in one of Barry's spines, and one of his sickle toe claws. He sighed. It would be a while before he'd want to train a Raptor again. Barry had been a good friend, and had met an untimely death. But James wasn't one to dwell on sorrow. Looking down at the floor, he closed the cabinet door.

Several weeks later and James had gotten over his loss. He had been given a pretty nasty job by Rhino. One of the stables were being repaired, and James was given the task of temporarily moving the creatures from that stable to another one. Rhino had left the animals just outside, and James was going to have his hands seriously full. He had to move Tusker, his Phiomia, Cuddles the Sarcosuchus, Mr. Tractor the Triceratops, Bowser the Colossochelys, Brownie the Ankylosaurus, Rufus, another Phiomia, and Bumper the Parasaurolophus.

He sighed, and got on with it. They followed him for a bit, until Cuddles decided to lay down, and the rest of the animals followed suit. James whistled sharply for them to follow, and they went forward a bit more before settling down again.

James began shouting now, "Hey! Hey! C'mon! Let's go! Move it!"

This time the animals actually obeyed and the entire misfit herd rumbled down to the other stable. James carefully put them each in their compartments and locked the stable doors. The stable was just at the parameters of Ark Village, and it was the biggest one in the village.

He had a run on Tusker, which was the fastest Phiomia any of the villagers had seen. He was just heading back when Shadow waved James over.

"What's the problem?" asked James.

"Brownie is missing. He must've wandered off."

They began hunting for the missing Ankylosaurus, and when they found him, he was stuck between two trees. James cut down one of the trees, freeing Brownie, who he rode up to the stables.

Brownie had a tan underbelly with chestnut brown armor and a dark brown stripe running down it with chocolate colored spikes. He returned the armored dinosaur to the stable, and then went out to harvest some dodos. With all the carnivores they had in the camp now, it took a good deal of meat to sustain them all, so they regularly harvested dodos to feed to the big carnivores. James collected two, and got their meat, before feeding them to Bloodrush the Carnotaurus. It belonged to Brian, who regularly took it out on little jaunts.

Just as he was leaving, Brian came in to ride him. Bloodrush was a very intimidating looking Carnotaurus, with yellow eyes and blood red scales. At a distance, somebody might even mistake it for an Alpha Carnotaurus, which were extremely rare.

James decided to join Brian on his run, while riding Tusker. They went along the beach and found a wild Dilophosaurus, who attacked James. Bloodrush made short work of it. He looked into the air and saw a Pteranodon come gliding down. Shadow was riding it. It was named Ptera, and Shadow used it to get around from place to place very quickly. This is when James decided to go out and tame a Pteranodon for himself. He returned to Ark Village, got a bow and tranquilizer arrows, and then got Brownie to ride.

He went out to the meadow, where Pteranodon seemed to congregate. He would've liked a green one, but he'd settle for any color. Brownie thundered and rumbled into the clearing like a huge chocolate colored tank. James looked around, and saw a Pteranodon land. He got off Brownie and looked at it. It was orange, with some maroon stripes running vertically down its beak. Like a quiet cat stalking its prey, James stalked what he hoped would be his new Pteranodon. He pulled out an arrow and shot. The Pteranodon screeched and fluttered up into the air. He shot the Pterosaur twice more, and it flew into a tree. James thought it may have blacked out and fallen down.

He looked over the entire tree but the Pteranodon was nowhere to be found. James was dumbfounded. The Pterosaur almost seemed to disappear. He did a lot of head scratching before he gave up and decided to look around a bit more.

He mounted Brownie again and moved. He went further down the meadow and saw another Pteranodon on the ground. It was a green Pteranodon! Shadow flew over on his Pteranodon and dropped a package on the ground full of tranq arrows. James waved up and Shadow waved back.

"How did he know?" asked James.

He knocked an arrow in the bow, carefully aimed for its shoulder, and shot. The Pteranodon screeched and flapped its huge wings as it clumsily ascended into the air. James shot again, hitting it. Before it got out of range, he shot it one last time. It jerked, flapped irregularly, before falling slowly into the ground. He ran up to it, and got a good look. It was green with very dark blue-grey stripes; quite a nice color.

Brian came over on Bloodrush and asked James if he had enough meat.

"I have enough meat. I think I'll be OK."

He saw Shadow rounding up his Stegosaurs further down the field. He grabbed out the flare gun Rhino had made and sent out a yellow firework into the air. It got Shadow's attention, and he flew over and landed a few yards away.

Shadow came over looking excited, "You got one!"

James smiled and pointed to it.

Shadow crouched down next the Pteranodon, "You know…I can watch over it if you want me to. You could come back in an hour or two."

James smiled, nodded, "That's actually a good idea. I need to collect some berries for the storehouse. Thanks. I'll be back in a bit."

Shadow nodded, sat down below a tree and looked off into the sky.

James decided to take out Spike, his Stegosaurus. He gathered some berries, and Spike browsed a bit on his own. As he was going back to his house a half hour later, he passed up Brian on his Pteranodon, and Rhino on his white and black striped Carnotaurus, Snowstorm.

All the sudden Snowstorm rushed past James, almost brushing against him. James dodged.

"What's going on?" James asked.

"Brian's speeding on his Pteranodon, and Snowstorm won't stop following him." Rhino replied.

James chuckled, "Speeding?! Give that man a ticket!"

As soon as he said this Snowstorm almost bowled him over again.

He returned to the Pteranodon an hour later, and it was getting dark. Brian and Shira had come to see it. Brian was still on Bloodrush and Shira was on her Carnotaurus, Shullershy. McClure also came over on his pride and joy: his Raptor Sandstorm. The taming process was coming along nicely.

Shira crouched and got a look at the Pteranodon, "He's a nice one. Do you have a name for it?"

James rubbed his chin, "No, not yet."

Shira looked into the air, as if to get inspiration from it, "OK...Let me think...Cyclone?"

James mulled it over.

Shira chuckled to herself, "I really can't think of any names right now."

Shadow spoke up, "What about Jet?"

James gave Shadow a look, and Shadow burst into laughter.

James took his shift watching the Pteranodon before quickly going off to get some more meat. He was almost out. He went inside the storage shed and saw some meat, which he gathered and took. He passed up his Apatosaurus, Littlefoot, and then reached his Pteranodon. Still asleep. it was dark now, and he wondered how much longer it would take. Shadow came by again.

"I still think Jet is a good name," he said.

James chuckled, "Only you could think of a name like that."

Shadow dismounted Ronen and continued. "How about Drake?"

James looked at Shadow, "You know what? You, Shira and Rhino all have the most pitiful imaginations."

Shadow laughed, "You're probably right!"

A few hours later, in the dark of night, he had a tamed Pteranodon. He named it Jetstream. He mounted, and the Pteranodon flew up. He had ridden Pteranodon before, but now he was riding his very own. He flew up almost into the clouds, far above Ark Village. When he got a bit lower, he flew over to the base at Lake Lore, and landed there. He decided to bed there for the night. As he entered the building, Shadow came from behind.

James said, "Look, I pretty much chose your name."

Shadow perked up, "Really?"

"Jetstream. Happy now?"


	12. Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs

Waking up, James looked inside his bedchamber. It was so dim. He had his windows open as usual. Why was it so dark? As he opened the door he soon saw why. It was extremely foggy, as fog from the ocean had formed a thick cloak around the beach. He looked outside and saw a Carnotaurus he had never seen before. He saw Shira come around the corner.

He called over, "Hey Shira!"

She looked, waved, and James motioned for her to come over. There was no wind plus it was dead silent. Not a sound could be heard, aside from her silent steps as she came across the sand.

She smiled, "What is it James?"

"Who's Carnotaurus is this?"

"Oh its Jason's. Rhino gave him that reddish saddle. He named it Raspberry."

James laughed. He could see why though, as the Carnotaurus was reddish, with a bit of pink on its head.

Shira squinted her eyes and pointed down the shore, "Now who is that?"

"Looks like Shadow...let's go see."

Shadow was soaked to the bone, and he had a primitive oxygen tank around his back.

James laughed, "Shadow what on earth were you doing?"

Shadow, with wide eyes replied, "Oh, taming something new!"

James got suddenly excited.

"What is it?"

Shadow pointed into the water at what looked like a dolphin, but it wasn't. It was an aquatic reptile known as Ichthyosaurus. It was an extinct, or at least, once extinct aquatic reptile. James waded into the water, which was chest deep. The Ichthyosaurus nudged him as if he was an old friend. James ran his hand along its smooth skin. It even had a saddle.

"That'll be our village's first tamed Ichthyosaur!" Shadow said excitedly.

Shira got in the water as well, laughing as the curious creature nudged her and played like a child in the water.

Shira looked at James, "We need to find our own now!"

Taming their own Ichthyosaur was definitely high up on their list of to-do's, but James also had another few jobs he had to do before he could do that. He had to take care of Cuddles. Cuddles was about as cuddly as a rock, seeing as he was a really sluggish, and sometimes ornery, Sarcosuchus. Cuddles wasn't James' crocodile, but it somehow became his big, grumpy responsibility. James couldn't even remember who owned the big pile of scales. He simply moved Cuddles to one of the underwater bay stables, which were closed off spaces in the bay near Ark Village.

He could hold off on the second job for a bit anyway. He was just too excited about the Ichthyosaurus project. He had known about the Ichthyosaurs in the bay for quite a bit, but it was only very recently that Shadow had learned how to tame them.

He mounted his Pteranodon and looked into the bay. He saw a Colossochelys, and at least three Ichthyosaurs in the water. Finding one wouldn't be much of a challenge that was for sure. They were all over the bays and reefs offshore. They probably wouldn't even need to take a mount to tame one. As he flew and admired the scenery, he caught a glimpse of a Stegosaurus eating berries on the shore.

Suddenly he put his hands over his face and gave a frustrated groan. He remembered a job he had to do.

Reluctantly, he wheeled around on his Pteranodon and went to the stables. He had to go out and find berries on his Stegosaurus. He got out Sir Spikes and put the gear on. Sighing, he went out to the berry patches. He was finding it increasingly difficult to collect large quantities of berries. He used to collect vast amounts, but now he got far less. He guessed it was probably because most of the berry patches around the village had been absolutely ransacked.

He was having no luck, and he was finding it very hard to focus anyway. He just wanted to get his hands on an Ichthyosaur and go out looking for underwater treasures. He had heard rumors of silica pearls shining like stars on the deep ocean floor. James suddenly snapped out of his daydream when the Stegosaurus got down and started to fall asleep. He woke it up, put it in the stables, and expelled most of his energy running to Shira's house to tell her to get ready to look for that Ichthyosaurus.

Shadow had told Shira about a part of the bay filled with Ichthyosaurs. They went to it, James riding Bumper, his Parasaurolophus, and Shira riding her Carnotaurus Shullershy. When they approached the bay, there were at least five Ichthyosaurs in the bay. All they had to do was take their pick. The creatures were friendly to begin with, and they hardly did anything when the two humans approached, not even bothering to get away. Really, the only thing they needed to do to tame an Ichthyosaur was to simply feed it fish, and put a saddle on it.

At the end of the hour, James had a red and brown one named Echo, and Shira had a green and orange one named Algae. They each got on their Ichthyosaurs and tested them out the entire day.

By nightfall, they were quite comfortable with them. The next day and they swam even more. Shira was in love with hers, and so was James. They were nearly ready to explore the depths of the sea around the Ark.

The following day James was doing his rounds about the village. Shira was in the bay practicing diving and evasive moves on Algae. Walking past the main highway going through the village, he saw Tobi's Tyrannosaurus named Little Princess. Though James wouldn't have ever named a Tyrannosaurus such a patronizing name, it didn't help that the T-Rex was grey with pink marking all over it.

James decided to go out on a mission to collect some metal ore to make some advanced tools for their underwater expeditions. There was a very tall mountain named Mt. Orncreft in the mountain range north of Ark Village that was full of iron and copper ores in different parts of the mountain. He climbed up, higher and further. However, he didn't find any metal on that part of the summit. So, he decided to clamber his way to the top.

After a bit of a struggle, he reached the top, and found an empty storage box. Nothing was in it, so he looked out. The view was spectacular. He could see for miles and miles. The forests to the North, Lake Lore to the East, and the ocean and Ark Village to the West. He gasped. He couldn't get over how beautiful the view looked. It was a feast to the eyes. The vast, spreading, grassy meadows full of peaceful grazing Triceratops and Stegosaurus. The deep green forests and jungles looking like moss on a rock. There were gleaming white rivers, running like glass ribbons through the vast landscape, with a sky as blue as sapphire, and air as pure as crystal. To the far south was a large mountain range, with peaks covered in snow.

He took in the view, admiring every last bit of it, and then he started moving back down. He clambered carefully down the steep slope when a loose rock shifted under his feet. He slid down the hill on his back, letting the rock flow do what it wanted with him. He wasn't going too fast, and he was in complete control of himself. He slid down faster and faster. James dug his feet into the gravel, which slowed him down a bit, before reaching a slightly less steep part of the hill and coming to a stop. James got up. He hadn't taken any mounts, so he didn't need to find it, and he didn't really have anything on him. He simply descended slowly before reaching the base of the mountain.

On his way back, he was walking into the jungle when suddenly something large and black jumped out in front of him. It was a Saber-Toothed Cat. James yelled, and pulled out his knife. The Smilodon was facing him now, and he threateningly swiped his blade, yelling. The cat roared, exposing fangs like murderous butcher knives. James took a step towards the cat, which shied away, before running away back into the jungle.

He quickly evacuated, but suddenly realized he was only a half mile away from the village. He flew into his house, breathed a sigh of relief. Smilodon may be terrifying creatures, but if you stand your ground they usually go to pick on somebody their own size. With that, James fell asleep in his bed.

The next day he took out his Pteranodon, Jetstream. He flew around the island scouting the entire day, and then it got dark. He was flying back when he saw a campfire, and three Carnotaurus standing around it. He recognized Raspberry, and two others. When he flew down and saw who it was he met with Tobi, Edmonto and Rhino.

Rhino looked up and waved, "Hello James we were just having a little fireside chat about now."

James walked up, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We were just exploring a bit, looking for a renegade Raptor or something. What are you doing here?"

"Scouting. Shira and I are going to be going on an underwater expedition before long."

Rhino nodded, chewing on a piece of wheat.

"Yeah I'd like to get an Ichthyosaurus myself. Find some of those Ichthyosaurs and find some of those silica pearls!"

James laughed, "Rhino I didn't think you're the type that would look for buried treasure!"

The next day, he swung by Shira's house. Shira looked very excited.

"What are we doing today James?"

Her enthusiasm rubbed off on James, "We're going on an underwater expedition. There are rumors of silica pearls underwater near the waters near the Red Cliffs."

Shira nodded, "I like how that sounds. When will we leave?"

James shrugged, "Now if you want."

Shira smiled, "I was hoping you'd say that!"

They had gotten ready, using Rhino's primitive air sacks to breathe underwater, though it would only last for under a half hour. They both got on their Ichthyosaurs and dove underneath the water. It was like a mystical alternate world. There were stone columns and kelp gently swaying to and fro in the sea. They had brought goggles with them to see underwater, and that helped tremendously.

They suddenly saw a dead Ichthyosaurus in the water. Looking down, they saw three Megalodon all coming up towards them. They got there almost at once. Shira pointed vigorously away from the Megalodon. They surfaced, and the Ichthyosaurs swam as fast as they possibly could.

Another hour out at sea, and they were right in front of the base at Lake Lore, which they had swum into. James saw a Pteranodon in the air. It was Edmonto, on Iceflame. Edmonto waved and Shira and James waved back. They quickly stopped off at the base to get something to eat.

There was some sort of chowder there that James ate. It had a weird taste...a bit like peanuts actually. Shira got some jerky and gnawed on that, before proclaiming it too tough, and just getting some berries. Then, they hopped back on their Ichthyosaurs.

James said he'd like to go deep, and see what lay deeper underwater. They executed their plan, and dove way, way down. They had explored for about 10 minutes before seeing something very scary. There was an Elasmosaurus! It was a large Plesiosaur that they had never seen before. Shira's eyes were wide, and she pointed up. James was right behind her. He looked behind him and the Elasmosaurus was still following them...along with three Megalodon. They booked it faster than they ever had before, the Ichthyosaurs running on their own terror.

They outran the Megalodon, and returned to the base at Lake Lore. Rhino was there, and he had a huge grin on his face.

James smirked, "What's so lovely today Rhino?"

Rhino held up a sack and the grin seemed to connect at the back of his head. He opened up the sack, and about 10 huge pearls spilled out onto the table. Shira and James both gasped.

"I got my Ichthyosaurus this morning."

James shook his head.

He was heading out the door when Shira called after him, "James! Where are you going?!

James yelled back, "To find some silica pearls!"


	13. Ark Village Meets Set

It was dark. Men from Ark Village and Edmonto had come to meet. They were initiating a new tribe member. The eccentric, easily impressed Setonji, or Set as he liked to be called. He was a castaway that had lived in the jungle for a while. He had swung by the Rockart tribe, since Rhino and Shadow had both heard of him, and had also seen him, but didn't know him personally. They were now meeting with him a few miles from Ark Village. Set knew a good bit about the Ark Tribe, but was completely trustworthy, though trusting him with your life could be a big mistake.

He was average height, and was tanned all over. His voice was loud, gruff, and usually excited and cheerful. He wore cloth and leather, and wasn't muscular by any means. He had lived near a creek in the jungle, and usually ate fish and berries. Now, he was joining the Tribe of Ark. Shadow, McClure, Rhino, and Tobi with his 12 year old son Edmonto, were all in the meadow near Lake Lore. James had brought Tusker, his Phiomia, and Edmonto was riding his Raptor, Speedy. Rhino was riding Batya, and Shadow was riding ever loyal Ronen. McClure was riding his Raptor, Sandstorm, the first Raptor to be trained for the Ark Tribe. Tobi had his Argentavis, Midnight, the ebony black giant vulture.

James looked at Shadow.

"Isn't Set supposed to be here already?" James asked.

As if on cue, Set appeared out of the bushes like a stray cat, which was pretty much what he was.

"I am here! I am here!" Set shouted excitedly.

James waved, "Hello Set! Welcome to the tribe."

Set shook James' hand, which to James felt like a jackhammer. Set had an enormous smile on his face, and James tried to release the grip, but the overjoyed Set kept shaking his hand.

"I've never been in a tribe before!" Set shouted.

James tried to introduce Shadow, and when he did, Set began jostling Shadow with his overly vigorous handshake.

After repeating this cycle with everybody else, Set got up and asked, "Where is the Village? Which way's south?"

McClure pointed South, "We'll get there in a few hours, it's nearly daylight."

After arguing on who had to surrender his mount, Tobi went off on his Argentavis and came back with his Parasaurolophus, Bumper.

Rhino looked over at Set, "So, Set, why exactly have you decided to join the Tribe of Ark?"

"Ah, a Carnotaurus decided to make my home, it's home. So, now I want to join the tribe! How many are in the tribe now?"

"About fifty members now," Rhino said.

In the small hours of the morning, nothing happened, and they went on their way. At about 6:00 in the morning, James was attacked by fire ants while on Tusker, which Set decided was too slow. Set ran off at the sight of the ants, screaming some gibberish none of the party could decipher. When the ants were dead, Set came back, and said he had a fear of ants.

Another hour and it was daylight. Suddenly the men realized Set wasn't following them.

James sighed, "Set! Set come back!"

No answer.

Rhino shook his head, "You could just yell." and Rhino sure did, "Set! There are ants where you're at! Come back over here!"

Sprinting out of the bush came Set. The party laughed, and Rhino almost fell off Batya, howling with laughter.

The rest of the party, except for Shadow and Edmonto, decided to cross the beach to get to the village, but there was always a group of Ankylosaurus on that beach, and they didn't want to go anywhere near them. So, they would be going by meadow to the Village, though it would take a bit longer to get to the village. Soon enough, they reached the village, and Set began roaming around, familiarizing himself with the sights.

James saw Shadow go out on his Spinosaurus, Ice-Tea. When he asked why, Shadow replied that there was a Tyrannosaurus close to the village, so he was going out on Ice-Tea, called that because of its tea colored sail, with the rest of it being olive green, with a yellow snout. Edmonto was up on his Pteranodon, watching the action from a distance. James was on Ronen, and he watched from a distance as well.

The Spinosaurus roared a huge crocodile roar and the T-rex responded with a resounding bellowing roar. The Spinosaurus grabbed the T-rex's head with its massive claws and quickly bit down on the T-rex's neck. The T-rex roared and then Ice-Tea let go. The T-rex ran off, not wanting to be killed. They looked at the ground at what looked like a huge red rock. But, James knew what it was: a Tyrannosaurus egg. This was a big score. He told Edmonto to take it back to the Village storehouse. He took it and flew off. Rhino came over on his Phiomia, Rufus. He took one look at Ice Tea going back to Ark Village, and he went with the security. He looked along the beach and saw a piranha on the shore. He killed it and harvested its meat.

A few hours later and he saw Set on Tusker, trotting along the seashore. He looked down the shore and Set yelled and charged. It was a beautiful looking Ankylosaurus that was stone grey with two orange stripes running down its sides. Its head was also orange.

Set said excitedly, "It's orange! We must tame it!"

James rolled his eyes. He had heard somewhere through the grapevine that orange was Set's favorite color.

Edmonto came over on his Pteranodon. When he heard Set's request for the Ankylosaur, he laughed and flew off. That boy loved to explore on his flyers. Unfortunately, they didn't have all day to tame it, so, after much persuasion, Set decided to reluctantly abandon the Ankylosaur of his dreams. A bit further down the beach, they saw a dead Raptor that, as fate would have it, was a blazing orange with green spines.

Set, devastated, cried out, "Who…Who killed it?! Who?!"

Much to James annoyance, the orange Ankylosaurus had come to investigate. It also had orange spikes.

Set, mystified, said, "Orange is the color of life!"

'Whatever that means…' James thought.

He decided to show Set the base at Lake Lore, which had grown into a little mini-village of itself. Shadow, Rhino and McClure lived there. When they arrived, Set was riding Tusker, and James was riding Speedy. "James, we made it!" Set said happily. Set entered into the base, which now had eleven individual livable buildings in it.

Edmonto met Set, "You can go around and look at everything if you want, Tobi's my dad and he's over there, and I'll be over in my house."

He pointed, and Set walked up the blue steps to the Village court. Set went directly to the Theropod court, where all the big carnivorous dinosaurs lived, with the small dinosaurs living in the stables. They passed up Bloodrush, the red Carnotaurus, Pumpkin the Spinosaurus, and Ice Tea. With a golden bridle sat Tyros, the tribe's first tamed Tyrannosaurus.

Set looked at the dinosaur conduct sign, which had three rules on it,

1\. Only ride your dinosaurs.

2\. Get another owner's permission before riding their dinosaurs.

3\. Only take your stuff.

Set made a mental note, before he came to the huge gates of the Aquatic Bay. They went to check on the aquatic reptiles, but there was something going on. Ice Tea was in the water attacking something. A Sarcosuchus was attacking Muddy, Edmonto's Elasmosaurus. The Spinosaurus quickly dispatched the Sarcosuchus, and James took Muddy out for a ride. He put it back, and then went to check on Set, who looked like he was trying to get on an annoyed looking T-rex.


	14. Taming Alan the Raptor

James was out with Shira on a mission: to tame another Raptor. After the untimely death of Barry, James had needed to tame a new one, but he hadn't had a chance. Now, he was going out with Shira, hoping they'd be able to tame one before the end of the day.

They were combing the beach, and this particular spot was unusually cluttered. It was an extremely wide beach, stretching back over 200 yards, before the sands met up with a hillside forest. They surveyed the beach. There was a bunch of Stegosaurs, Triceratops and Parasaurolophus, as well as several Apatosaurs. Further down the beach Shira pointed into the ocean.

"James, look down there. There's a Spinosaurus in the water."

James looked over. It was attacking something that looked like a shark. James didn't like it. He decided to tranquillize it and then, when tranquilized, they could either kill it, or tame it. He just decided to tranquilize it now. He fired a tranq arrow at it. It hit its mark since the Spinosaurus roared and bit at its side where James had shot it. When James saw the Spinosaurus look his way and roar loudly, he sprinted to the forest. Shira sprinted alongside him.

A bizarre fact about the Spinosaurus was how jealously it guarded its territory. A Spinosaurus' territory was almost always near water. It would do nothing short of kill you if you were on its beach as an invader, but if you run away, the further you got away from the beach the less vicious the Spinosaurus became. If you run far enough, fast enough, the Spinosaurus will usually lose interest and return to the water. James used that same tactic. The Spinosaurus would not only have to run into the forest, which was a huge grove of giant sequoia, but it would also have to run up a hill. After running a good ways, the Spinosaurus turned back to the water without even a roar. Shira and James were both breathing heavily.

"You OK?" James asked.

Shira nodded and smiled. Nothing could beat her. She had tamed a Spinosaurus, but this one was a male, and red with grey legs and arms.

"Do you want that one?" asked James.

Shira shook her head, "I think that one has some behavioral issues."

When they returned to the beach they saw a red-orange Raptor with blue-grey spines. It looked beautiful. He saw the Raptor speed down towards a Triceratops and attack. James also saw the Spinosaurus down the beach returning to its shark and dragging it onto the beach to eat. Hopefully that would keep the sail-backed monster distracted. He pulled out a tranq arrow and shot the Raptor in the thigh. It was a perfect shot, but the Raptor was distracted by the Triceratops, which has knocked it to the ground. The Triceratops was now warding it off.

He looked down the beach again, and realized with alarm that the Spinosaurus had eaten most of the shark and left. It was now attacking a Parasaurolophus, but was advancing down the beach. He shot the Raptor again. Two more arrows and the Raptor was down. This was going very well.

He fed the Raptor meat and narcotics.

"Ah…you're a beauty!" he said with excitement.

He looked to where Shira was standing, except now she wasn't there.

He shouted, "Shira! Where are you?!"

she was over near the Spinosaurus, which was currently fighting a Triceratops.

He yelled, "Shira are you out of your mind?! Get back here!"

She looked over and ran back. James was angry until she held out a pile of prime meat. It was from the Megalodon the Spinosaurus had killed.

"Never do that again." he said in a low voice.

"I won't have to." she replied.

The Spinosaurus was going on a positive rampage. One thing was for sure, this was a male who was extremely protective of his territory. It left the Triceratops it was attacking, which ran off, and it began attacking a Parasaurolophus, and in the process got closer to the two of them and their Raptor. If it got any closer he'd have to kill it. He really wanted to avoid that situation.

The Spinosaurus got away from their Raptor a bit, and they commenced naming it. It's nearly impossible to tell what gender a Raptor is, so it could be named with either a girl or boy name.

Shira looked at its blue spines, "How about Aqua? But no…this Raptor is red-orange. Lava?"

But that didn't have the ring either. The Spinosaurus kept attacking everything near its territory. It had killed almost everything near it. It turned towards James, and it looked like it was going towards them. "You'd better run..." James said.

it turned out however that the Spinosaurus turned and started attacking a Stegosaurus. This was crazy. The Spinosaurus was going on a gigantic killing spree. He decided to sneak up to it and shoot it with some arrows. He got just close enough to guarantee a shot, and then, while the Spinosaurus got pummeled by the Stegosaurus' spiny tail, James took three shots. The Spinosaurus was covered in blood. Suddenly, when the Spinosaurus tried to bite it, the Stegosaurus swung and struck the Spinosaurus hard on the head. The Spinosaurus roared and ran off. The Stegosaurus bellowed and chased it.

"Well the tables have turned." James said to himself.

The Spinosaurus went along the edge of the woods, but was running right over towards the Raptor and Shira. It roared and toppled a tree along the forest edge. James ran over to Shira, who was lying prone on the sand. The Raptor was alright, and James hit the dirt beside Shira. The Spinosaurus was stopped by three Triceratops, which began attacking it. The Stegosaurus caught up and they killed the Spinosaurus.

After harvesting some of its prime meat and recovering some of his arrows, James went back to Shira, relieved. Now they wouldn't have to look over their shoulder at a mad Spinosaurus constantly.

They kept feeding it narcotics and prime meat. It would be even easier to tame with prime meat. He had brought Rhino's Raptor vocal box. They watched and waited. James looked down the beach and saw an enemy almost as fierce as a Spinosaurus. He rarely saw them, but they did exist, and they were incredibly nasty: giant ants.

They didn't exist in the fossil record that he knew of. Some were like enormous fire ants, crawling on the ground, and they bit with huge mandibles that could sever a finger. The really deadly ones were the flying ones. The fliers were the colony soldiers, and they had stingers. The sting felt like being stabbed with a hot poker, followed by an extreme numbing sensation that debilitated most creatures.

There were giant ground ants on the beach. He charged towards them and swung at them with his pick and killed them all. There were three. When he heard a droning buzz he got really nervous.

He yelled over to Shira, "Flying Soldier Ants!"

Shira got up, leaving the Raptor and plunging into the water. James knew that if the ants stung you too many times, death would follow. He knew a Raptor would be the same, so he threw togethe an emergency plan. He looked and saw an Apatosaurus at the forest edge. He watched as the two giant flyer ants swarmed over towards him. He ran over to the Apatosaurus, hoping that the ants would start attacking the Apatosaurus, and then would leave James alone.

When a Giant Ant stung, it would release pheromones into the air that put any other stinging ants around into a blind rage. He hid behind the Apatosaurs' leg. The ants began attacking the Apatosaur, which began thrashing around and James ran away from it as fast as he could. He watched from the beach as the Apatosaur whacked with its tail, bellowing and thrashing. It slammed one of the ants with its tail, and when James found it, he killed it with his hatchet. The others must've flown away or were killed by the Apatosaur.

He looked over at Shira, "That was a close call."

Shira chuckled and looked back at the Raptor, "It better not be closer next time," she said.

It was still unconscious. He looked down the beach and saw another pair of Raptors way down the beach, going after a Stegosaurus. They left those ones alone.

James went into the forest to see if there were any narcoberries. There were crawling ants in the woods. James quickly evacuated the area, not wanting to have any more flying ants to attack him. When he got back, Shira was taming the Raptor. It was up, and Shira was performing the Raptor call. James stood still, not wanting to interfere. The taming was successful, and James suddenly found the right name: Alan.

James looked at Alan, "Welcome to the tribe of Ark, Alan."

He put on its saddle he had brought.

"Great work Shira!"

She smiled and looked back at the Raptor.

"He's a beauty!" she said.

"He sure is," replied James, suddenly shocked at just how amazing he looked.

The contrast between his bright red-orange scales and his aqua-blue spines was very eye-catching, and he was definitely a friendly one at that.

"It's a good thing you taught me how to use that Raptor Call," said Shira, "Or I probably would've been in trouble."

"Sorry I had to leave, but those stupid Giant Ants would've made even more trouble than that Raptor."

Shira huffed, "I hate them too, but at least we got the Raptor."

James looked over him again, "Well you tamed him, so you get the first go on him."

Shira held up her hand, "Oh no James he's your Raptor I don't want-"

"Please," said James, "I insist."

She shyly approached the saddle.

"Go on!" said James, "Let's see what he can do."

Shira mounted, and just let the Raptor get used to her weight before she increased the speed a bit. Before long, she was sprinting up and down the beach fast as Alan could go. She was laughing with joy on his back, and it made James' heart feel something he hadn't felt before. Maybe, just maybe, Shira had found healing.

After returning to Ark Village, Shadow, Rhino and David were the first to know.

Rhino patted the Raptor on the back, "So why not Barry two?"

James responded, "Because this one looks like an Alan."

Rhino shrugged his shoulders, "Oh, by the way, did you guys see that rampaging Spinosaurus at the beach near the Red Cliffs? That thing was killing everything!"


	15. Phil the Gigantopithecus

Waking up, James saw Shadow and McClure in a circle talking to each other. He went across the court in Ark Village and came up to talk.

"Big news," said Shadow excitedly, "McClure just saw a new creature near the base at Lake Lore."

James was now just as excited as Shadow, "What was it?"

"A huge bipedal ape. It must be a Gigantopithecus; it's the only animal that fits the description."

McClure nodded, "I heard from the other tribe that you need to feed it Mejoberries to tame it. Feed it from the front in a non-aggressive manner. If you startle it from behind it will attack you. The Rockarts said that they will also keep chasing you down if you anger them. They aren't very fast, but they can tear you limb from limb."

James raised his eyebrow, thinking of all the uses a bipedal ape could have. It could carry, defend, and be helpful in raids or battles against other tribes.

McClure continued, "They have one, it is extremely smart, powerful, and loyal. I'm going to go find one; they must've come up from the south."

Shadow mounted Ronen, his Raptor, to search for his, and McClure mounted Sandstorm. James mounted Alan, and rode off. He was wearing his purple armor that Rhino had made him. He checked his supplies in his pack. He had some cooked jerky for himself, meat for Alan, a bow and arrows, and narcotics to tranquilize the ape if things got out of hand. McClure had said that tranquilizing the ape was a bad idea, since the species as a whole were incredibly deep sleepers, known to sleep through the ruckus of a herd of Apatosaurs feeding. He had oodles of Mejoberries, which were the Gigantopithecus' favorite food.

He quickly locked up his house, and looked over at Shira's house. She was coming out if her house and she waved at James.

"Where are you going James?"

James called back, "I'm getting me an ape!"

Shira looked confused, but she shook her head and went back inside, knowing she'd find out soon enough. He went back to locking up, and admiring his work. The castle, as he called it, was coming along quite nicely. It had stone walls and floor, with a storage area for the basement. The open first level didn't have a front wall yet, but that would soon change.

He finally looked at the community stables, where all the tribe's Raptors, Parasaurolophus', and Dodos were kept, as well as the odd Dilophosaurus or Giant Tortoise. There was space to add another occupant. Good. The ape would go there.

He headed out into the forest, making for the base at Lake Lore, to see if anybody had any luck. He had the strong feeling the ape would be near the hills. There were mountains to the North, and he decided to check there first, hoping he'd bump into one along the way. He came to the base, but nobody was there. No signs of anyone being there lately except for smoldering day old embers on the campfire outside the door. He went down to the edge of Lake Lore; maybe it would be there.

He didn't think that he'd find the ape mixing with other species. He knew Gigantopithecus was highly intelligent, and it was also described as being a forest dweller. The Lake shore was habitat for Stegosaurus, but not for the ape.

As he ran along the shore he saw a lone Dilophosaurus attacking a Triceratops. But the Dilophosaurus was interrupted, and much to James' surprise, a Raptor came out of nowhere and leapt onto the back of the Triceratops. The Triceratops threw it off, and another Triceratops came and impaled it with its horns, killing it. James took some of the meat and continued on. He looked at his map, and at the Apatosaurus on the opposite shore.

He thought the mountain closest to him was best. It was more of a huge, grassy hill, and he decided to go there. David had built a base close to there that James had heard was a huge castle. There was also however, a Dino Raider base near the mountain as well. James stayed well away.

James led Alan down to the edge of the lake and they began swimming across. Midway down the lake crossing, Alan let out a screech of pain. James lurched behind and saw a mega-piranha chomping on Alan's tail. James struck the fish with his iron hatchet. The bloodthirsty fish swam away, and Alan swam much faster to the opposite shore. James dismounted and checked Alan's wound. It wasn't serious, though James bandaged it up and they continued on.

After trudging back into the jungle, Alan smelled the air. James smelled it too: a dead carcass. They eventually came to a dead Triceratops, a very long dead Triceratops. Alan then hunched low and growled, the spines on his neck bristling. James jumped off Alan. He had learned long ago that an angry Raptor, even a tame one, was a thing best stayed away from.

Alan lunged forward, and then in a screeching ball of scales and claws, did battle with another grey Raptor. Alan slashed and bit, James jumped in and struck the raptor on the back of the head with his stone club. The Raptor fell down, and Alan finished it off. They continued on, James hoping to come back to Ark Village alive.

James decided to search along Lake Lore. The ape may have come down to it to drink. All he saw however was a Stegosaurus, and when he looked some more, he saw a rare Giant Tortoise with a golden shell. No ape down by the river. He went back into the jungle, and went into a rocky area. Suddenly from behind a boulder an enemy Raptor flew into Alan. James was knocked off, and if it wasn't for the armor he was wearing he would've had a lethal slash wound on his side from where the Raptor hit him. Alan was well trained in combat, and after a brief struggle, he killed the enemy Raptor.

He had seen two enemy Raptors. This was unusual, and James didn't like it. James wondered if they had been trained by the Dino Raiders themselves.

He came to a wide field, and in it was a wooden structure. It was David's storage shed. Alan's neck spines bristled again, accompanied by a low growl. James dismounted, and no sooner had he then Alan sprinted into the field. James rushed after him, he was fighting two Raptors. One was blue, and the other was green with a long yellow striped running down its side. James yelled, letting Alan have one Raptor. The green Raptor went after James, screeching and then charging. James was wielding his stone club, his best weapon against Raptors. He swung it at the weak spot on a Raptors snout. The Raptor screamed and swung with his sickle toe claw. It skidded along James's iron armor, leaving him unharmed, though the chest plate had a large slash mark on it.

He swung again, this time aiming directly at the Raptor's skull. The aim was true and the Raptor was brought down. Alan had also killed the other Raptor. Then, a loud screech, louder, longer and fiercer was heard on the forest's edge. It was what James had feared. It was an Alpha Raptor. It came into the field. Its eyes were white-red and pupil-less. It was bright white, with red spines on its tail and neck. Its teeth were huge, and razor sharp.

Alpha dinosaurs are usually carnivores, and they are bigger, smarter, faster and fiercer than normal dinosaurs of their species. Alpha dinosaurs are untrainable, and deadly, and were also known to kill for sport.

The alpha though, wasn't going for James. It was going for a Stegosaurus on the edge of the field. With blinding speed the Alpha Raptor bolted towards the Stegosaur, which prepared to swing its spiked tail at the Alpha. The Alpha Raptor jumped above the Stegosaur's tail as it swung, running beside it, and clamping its jaws around the Stegosaurus' neck. After several seconds, the Stegosaur crashed to the ground, dead. But the Alpha didn't eat it, it simply screeched in victory and left.

Alan screeched, getting the Alpha Raptor's attention. The Alpha looked with its blood-white eyes, screeched with bloody fangs and sprinted towards Alan. James leapt off, and let Alan do battle. Snarling, Alan lunged with outstretched claws towards the Alpha Raptor. James looked on with horror. He yelled to Alan, who was holding his own. In fact, the Alpha was doing less damage than Alan.

Alan did a tactical retreat, but the Alpha made an unbelievably long leap towards Alan. Alan turned around, using the Alpha's momentum against him, and slamming into it. The Alpha screeched. James saw that the Alpha was taking a lot of damage. Alan kept biting and slashing. Then, Alan went for the Alpha Raptor's throat, biting and not letting go. Then, the Alpha collapsed. Alan had won. James yelled to Alan, who came over.

James scratched Alan on the head. Alan growled contentedly. It was a miracle that Alan had made it out with only minor flesh wounds. James bandaged them up and collected the prime meat from the Alpha. Alpha dinosaurs only have prime meat, and after killing them, harvesting their meat is a must.

They continued on until about 3:00 in the afternoon. Suddenly he saw something heading down towards Lake Lore. It was the Gigantopithecus! It was right where they had fought the Alpha Raptor. James had to keep from shouting in happiness.

He dismounted Alan, "Stay Alan," he commanded, before putting the berries in his knapsack.

There was a Pteranodon walking around the field too, feasting on the dead Raptor carcasses. Gigantopithecus also eat carrion, so perhaps that had drawn it out. The ape disturbed a Dimorphodon, which fluttered into the air. The ape took no notice. When the ape turned towards James, he edged out of its way.

It was huge, about nine feet tall, and bipedal. It was just mulling around the field. The ape turned and saw James. James quietly extended his hand with the berries. The ape looked them over and snatched them before continuing on its way. McClure had said that Gigantopithecus wouldn't harm you in any way unless you either startled it, or attacked it. James was doing neither. And feeding it constantly would tame the creature. When tamed, they were very loyal, and friendly.

The ape kept ambling along, and it stopped right in front of David's storage shed. James walked up to the ape again, with the berries in his hand. But the ape didn't see him until he was right there. Startled, the ape roared and swung his hand.

He yelled and ran as fast as he could, "Is he following me?!" James said to himself.

He looked behind him and saw the ape running like an angry bodybuilder towards him. He ran all the way to Lake Lore, which was much closer than he thought from the field. The ape kept on coming.

"Man, it is really not happy with me," James said.

When he looked back behind him, he saw a Dilophosaur chasing him. The Gigantopithecus was distracted by it, and it stopped chasing James. With one swipe of its tremendous hands, the ape flung the limp, lifeless body of the Dilophosaur 50 feet down the field.

James now saw the tremendous power of this creature. After a few minutes he fed it again, and it accepted the food. James now knew he'd have to kill any aggressive animals near it or he couldn't tame the ape. He looked around. There were all kinds of Pterosaurs everywhere but that wouldn't matter. There was also a lone Stegosaurus walking in the field. Nothing else he could see though. He fed the ape again, and then a third time. Good, he was actually getting somewhere. He left a berry trail leading to the beach. That way he was further away from the forest, as keeping up with the ape in the forest would be much harder.

The ape followed the trail, eating the berries as he went. At the end of the trail, James held out more berries, which the ape took. Suddenly Alan came running over. James whistled for him to stop.

He said loud enough for the Raptor to hear but quiet enough to not spook the ape, "Alan, do NOT attack it!"

The ape continued, unfazed. He fed the ape several more times, going down the beach following the ape. There was a canyon going from the beach down into the forest. He saw what he least wanted to see down inside the canyon: a Carnotaurus.

"Ah, that's a Carnotaurus," said James to himself, "Ah…what am I going to do? I could lure the ape away. But it's getting closer…No, I'm going to have to kill it. I can't risk it."

He ran over to Alan, and charged the Carnotaurus. He ran into the canyon and at the last second jumped off Alan and let his Raptor fight it out. Alan was about a match for an untrained Carnotaurus. Alan jumped up on the Carnotaurus' back, where it couldn't bite. And since a Carnotaurus' arms are basically useless, Alan was in the best spot he could be in. he continued to attack with precise skill. He made short work of the Carnotaurus.

He let Alan eat some of the meat before going back to the ape, which was still in the same place.

He began talking to himself again, "He seems to be OK with Alan. Must only get angry if something directly attacks it."

He kept going for another hour, feeding it at intervals, and staying in the same area. He passed the same Stegosaur that had been there for as long as he had.

Another hour, and then after feeding it another time, the ape looked at him, and sat down. McClure had said that when a Gigantopithecus is tamed, it will sit down to signal you to groom it. This meant that James had now tamed the ape.

"Yes!" he said excitedly, as he began stroking the ape's coarse hair. The ape stood up.

James laughed, "Well now you won't punch me in the face! I think I'm going to name you…Phil!"

The ape snorted at his new name, and stared at James. James smiled and put his helmet on Phil. Phil looked so comical that James laughed out loud. The ape simply tapped it with his knuckles. Phil then took it off and sniffed it, then put it back on.

"I guess that's your helmet now," said James.

He decided to ride Phil, which he did by siting on Phil's shoulders. He whooped and Phil ran ahead. James had a bit of training to do. Phil then crouched down to eat some berries, as if he hadn't had enough. Then he stood up, and threw James off his shoulders, before continued eating. James rolled onto the ground and looked back up at the helmeted Gigantopithecus.

"Phil!" shouted James, "Don't do that!"

Taking Phil and whistling for Alan, James decided to return to the base at Lake Lore. Phil had a lot of stamina, but he didn't run all that fast. He was riding Phil while Alan followed behind. James traveled for an hour and a half, before he saw an orange Raptor several hundred yards in front of him. Time to test Phil's combat skill.

Phil roared and grabbed the Raptor, before he threw it on the ground, and punched it in the face. With a grunt, he threw the Raptor's body into Lake Lore. James was stunned.

They kept going on and on, and crossed a stream, then a broader river about 10 feet deep. They kept going until nightfall. Then they came to Lake Lore and had to cross it. James knew this part of the lake was full of Mega-Piranhas. Phil crossed and Alan followed. Just as he feared, a school of Mega-Piranhas, swarmed Alan.

Phil grabbed the fish and tore them to pieces. The vicious fish then began a feeding frenzy on their dead comrades. Phil and Alan exited the water as fast as possible. On the opposite shore, they saw a Triceratops, and in the far distance, the silhouette of a Spinosaurus. They evacuated the area immediately.

They arrived at Ark Village at about midnight, deciding to take the extra few hours to the entire way back to the village. James put Phil in the stables and told him to toss him up on the roof. Phil catapulted James onto the roof.

"Phil!" shouted James, "You beauty!"

Coming from around the corner came Shira.

"You tamed a giant ape?" she said incredulously.

James nodded and looked down at her.

"Alright," she continued, "I can take him out too right?"

"Sure," said James, "He's a bit of a brute though."

"Well," Shira replied, "Will you need a ladder to get down from off the roof?"

"Oh...maybe." said James, embarrassed.

He was up about 15 feet off the ground, definitely ankle-breaking distance if he fell. She came after a bit with the ladder and he climbed down.

"I can take it back to your house," he said smiling.

Shira laughed, "Did you see anything else while you were gone?" she asked.

James replied, "Oh yes: an Alpha Raptor."

Shira looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.

"What are those?" she asked.

"The leaders of the pack. They're bigger, smarter, and faster than normal Raptors."

Shira shuddered, "Regular wild Raptors are deadly enough."

James nodded, "Alan was trained well enough to take it on."

Shira nodded, impressed.

She looked at James hauling her ladder, and she smiled and said rather cautiously, "You can have dinner at my place since you're already here."

James was flattered, "Alright," he said, "That sounds great."


	16. Raid

James looked over the scene. Nothing was left. He was shocked. The entire community stable was empty. All the Raptors, Dilophosaurs, Parasaurolophus', Dodos, and Giant Tortoises were gone. There was only one thing it could be: a raid by the Dino Raiders. They were the only hostile tribe they knew of, and they were very well known for capturing and making off with a tribe's dinosaurs and animals.

In the tribe's early days, they had caused quite a bit of trouble, such as the incident with Hijikata. Rhino picked up a stirrup that was on the floor, he glared at it angrily before throwing it down on the ground.

"This is an outrage!" he shouted, "How are we supposed to carry on without our dinosaurs!"

James was just as angry, but he contained his anger to speak some advice, "They didn't take any of the big dinosaurs. Our T-rex's and Spinosaurus' are still safe. We just need to send an emissary to them, and make a treaty."

Rhino looked at James, "You can't bargain with these cutthroats James. They won't listen to reason. Apollo would rather kill you than sign a treaty." James' face was grim.

"Then to war."

James, Shadow and Rhino mounted Tyrannosaurus', figuring this would intimidate the Dino Raiders a bit, and they charged into the jungle. They knew their base was somewhere near where James had tamed Phil, who was also carried off by the Dino Raiders.

After a few hours they reached the gates. There were two guards with spears at the gates wearing full iron body armor.

James spoke loudly from the top of Tyros, "We have come to see your chief!"

The guards looked at each other and yelled back, "What is your business here?"

Rhino shouted angrily, "We have come to see your chief! Let us in, or face the wrath of our Tyrannosaurs. One word and you're dead!"

The two men were smart enough to obey Rhino, and they opened the gate. They rode their Tyrannosaurs in.

Their chief was a man named Apollo. He stood up, wearing iron armor and holding an obsidian spear.

Still on the back of Tyros, James looked into Apollo's eyes. Apollo looked smug, but still had an extremely threatening air to him.

"Apollo," James began, "You know why we've come. You have stolen our dinosaurs. You have broken the boundaries that separate our tribes. I have no intention of starting a war between us. I ask that you return our dinosaurs. All of them. I also ask that you never come near our tribe again. If you do, we will declare war on you. We're more powerful than you think."

Apollo nodded and looked at the ground, "You know, you are the first tribe to actually stand up to me. All the others cower in fear at the mere mention of my name. I like that. However, I will not give you your dinosaurs back. What, do you think I steal them for no reason? I intend to use them. If it takes a war, then it takes a war. I will take over this entire island, what do I care for tribal boundaries? Just as my parents named me after the Greek god, so I will be like him in battle!"

'Well,' thought James, 'he certainly has a high opinion of himself.'

Rhino took note of how the chief was already mentioning battle, as if he expected it to happen.

Shadow spoke, "Chief Apollo, we see you are strong, but we are as well. We will declare war on you if you don't relinquish our dinosaurs! We don't want a fight, let there be no bloodshed between us, simply give us our dinosaurs back and we will mention it no more."

Apollo laughed, "Do you really think a simple plea will move me? No! Let there be bloodshed if that's what it takes! If you hadn't come here on Tyrannosaurs I would've killed you myself for daring to speak up! I have your dinosaurs, they are mine now! Take them back if you dare. Now leave this village! If you have the audacity to come back, War is what you'll get!"

James, Rhino and Shadow turned back, mounted their T-rex's, and returned to Ark Village to have a meeting with the council.

Before they met with the council, James, Shadow and Rhino all met. James was violently angry. Rhino could hardly speak, and Shadow slammed his fist down on the table.

"I have never heard of anything so-" he didn't finish.

The three men all needed to cool off quite a bit before they could present themselves to the village. Shadow rubbed his eyes and yelled out in frustration. Rhino and Shadow both left, leaving James alone. He heard footsteps in the room. Shira came in the door with a concerned look on her face.

"What happened," she asked.

James was still boiling angry, but seeing Shira had somehow calmed him down a little.

"Their tribe leader stole our dinosaurs, insulted us in every way, and ran us off. We must fight back."

Shira gasped slightly and turned pale.

"Do what? Fight? Tribal War?"

James winced. Her words pierced his heart. She was right. Tribal war. It would be the first time it ever needed to come to blows.

Shira came towards James, "James, is there any other choice? Anything else we could do?"

James shook his head, "No Shira," he said somberly, "There is no other choice. Either we submit to them, or fight back."

Shira stared at the floor before looking back at James, "I understand. Will you meet with the tribe?"

James nodded yes. She slumped down on the ground. James knelt beside her. This was it.

There was a full and angry tribe who met in the Ark Village court. Some were saying to not war and simply retrain new dinosaurs; others had to be forcibly held back from going to the Dino Raiders themselves. James, Rhino, and Shadow all stood.

James spoke first, "Friends! Silence! Be Silent!"

there was still an angry shouting tribe in the court that was approaching a riot at an alarming pace. Suddenly, Tyros roared a bone shaking roar that silenced the tribe immediately. Shadow winked at James, he had taught Tyros to roar when told.

James continued, "Friends, we have lost dinosaurs. Days of work, and for some of you, weeks of work have been stolen. Now, I want to make this village a place of peace where a bunch of lunatics can't destroy your hard work. Now, we have only a few options: stay here and train new dinosaurs, or declare war on the Dino Raiders."

The crowd mumbled to itself, all the men and women thinking of their options.

Shadow spoke, "We may be able to take from their base if we go, we will go at dawn, when they least suspect us. They will suspect us to come at night, and their guard will relax when dawn comes. If we go, we will take back our dinosaurs! We have our Tyrannosaurs and our Spinosaurs. Go, and take back what is ours!"

the mumble became livelier; it seemed the warpath was the way to go.

The men shouted all in unison, "TO WAR!" in a huge yell the size of the whole tribe.

Rhino spoke, "Good! Now, get your weapons, and your steeds and armor, we leave tomorrow at midnight, at that rate we'll reach their base by dawn."

That night, there was a large gathering of about 20 men. The women and children had stayed behind and said their goodbyes. There were four Tyrannosaurs and three Spinosaurs. One man took his Ichthyosaurus and another took his Carnotaurus. The Spinosaurs would be best in the water, and since the Dino Raiders lived near the beach of the ocean, the Spinosaurs would be useful swimmers.

The Dino Raider's base was a spiny fortress, and the inside was a fortified building, with underground networks, with cliffs around the whole perimeter. It was protected, but also enclosed. The Dino Raiders would be trapped. They would enter and kill whatever they found. McClure came around, riding his Sarcosuchus.

He shouted up to James, riding his Spinosaurus, "Are you ready for this James?! I am!"

McClure turned around and raised his fist, "Who is ready to show Apollo who really owns those dinosaurs!?"

There was a gigantic cheer.

'At least morale is high…' James thought to himself.

They traveled as quietly as a herd of stomping bipedal reptiles can, and by dawn, they came to the base. It had once belonged to the eccentric Setonji, but the Dino Raiders had killed all his dinosaurs and moved in; Set was lucky to escape alive. James' Spinosaurus growled and roared a crocodile-like roar.

The Spinosaurus looked at the wooden gates. The dinosaur shook its massive head before roaring and slamming into them. The gates shuddered and James heard audible creaks. All the other dinosaurs and creatures came. Dinosaurs were roaring, Tyrannosaurs were stomping and smashing their heads into the gates. Smaller dinosaurs scuttled to and fro. It was a swirling, deafening spectacle.

Set was there with James, riding his Sarcosuchus, the only creature that he saved from the Dino Raiders.

Set shouted excitedly, "We fight! I'll take all their orange dinosaurs!"

They began stomping into the gates, taking the Dino Raiders completely by surprise. Spinosaurs and T-rex's poured into the massive courtyard. James' Spinosaurus killed two Pulmonoscorpius', and James dismounted, and so did everybody else, meeting the Dino Raiders who had regrouped.

James yelled and rushed forward with his iron sword. He killed a Dino Raider and began attacking their animals. He saw one of their Spinosaurs kill the Dino Raider's only T-rex. It was utter chaos, men of the Ark tribe attacking the Dino Raiders, Spinosaurs attacking enemy dinosaurs, men attacking enemy saber-toothed cats. T-rex's attacking Dino Raider's Raptors. Set's Sarcosuchus attacked two enemy Saber-toothed Cats and brought them down.

After 20 minutes fighting and battling, all of the Dino Raiders had retreated into the building. All of their enemy dinosaurs killed. All of the Ark tribe's warriors gathered in front of the building. The Spinosaurs roared in victory.

They thought of what to do. All their dinosaurs were in the underground catacombs, which could only be accessed through the inside of the building. It was made of incredibly hard material. Their door was made of solid iron, and not even a Spinosaurus could open it. Spike, Shadow's Spinosaurus, tried busting it down. It didn't budge. There was a window in the building and they could see some of the wounded Dino Raiders on the floor.

James yelled, "There they are! Take their armor as trophies!"

Rhino looked. The door was untouchable, the walls were made of stone, and they couldn't get in. however, Rhino had a secret. He had crafted a bunch of grenades. He brought one out without anybody seeing; he pulled the cord and pitched it at the building. It exploded, cracking some of the rocks in the wall.

James yelled, "What was that!"

Rhino showed him his grenades.

"How did you make gunpowder?!" shouted James.

"A trade secret!" replied Rhino.

They began trying to break the stone with pickaxes, everybody slamming the rock with their club or pickaxe.

Shadow said after a few frustrated minutes, "Ah! This is getting nowhere!"

James replied, "Rhino has grenades, we'll use them to break down the wall."

A Spinosaurus used its bodyweight to slam into the wall. The stones gave ever so slightly. Rhino threw a grenade at the wall. It cracked even further. Then another grenade was thrown. It exploded and small fragments of stone flew everywhere.

"I'll have to craft more!" Rhino shouted, "I have my supplies with me! Use you pickaxes to break down the wall, it may give a bit more now!"

they kept slamming the rock over and over. James jumped and looked at the window. They had a smithy full of unique armor and weapons. Even more incentive to break into their fortress! They kept hacking and hacking the rock, which was crumbling with every single swipe of the picks.

"One thing's for sure," said James, "It's no wonder they were worry free of attack. They built their fortress too well!"

Suddenly, a Dino Raider jumped out of the window and attacked Jason, an Ark tribe member. Jason was caught completely off guard, and was wounded, before Spike the Spinosaurus flung him out of the fortress. They didn't see him after that.

Rhino came up, "I got two grenades!"

He took them and flung them at the already much weakened wall. The stone was nearly gone then. The stones were severely cracked and some were displaced. They kept hacking at the wall and then James called one of the Spinosaurs over. It roared and smashed the wall, which collapsed to the ground. They yelled and swarmed inside. They went for the bodies of the dead Dino Raiders, taking all their armor and anything of worth on their persons.

They plundered the cabinets for armor or useful items, and James found a compass, which could be very useful indeed. There was one Dino Raider hiding underneath one of the beds. He was taken prisoner and his armor and weapons were taken. Rhino stabbed the beds and destroyed them in case any others were hiding.

As he was plundering the smithy, James found a suit of metal armor far superior than his old iron armor. He put them on, along with a blue steel club, far lighter and more durable than his stone one, but more dangerous.

Suddenly from behind him came a shout. It was Apollo.

The Dino Raider glared at James, "You wanted war, and now you shall have it!"

He lunged at James with an iron battle axe. James dodged and slammed his club on Apollo's back.

"You coward!" shouted James, "Why didn't you fight like a man while we were out! Now your men are all dead or imprisoned! You are alone!"

They fought like mad. James swung his club, and Apollo ducked, throwing a chair at him that was in the smithy. James was hit by it and he fell down. Apollo almost sent his battle axe into James' skull, but he rolled over and slammed his solid steel club into Apollo's unprotected kneecaps. Apollo screamed and fell down, the bone broken. Apollo rolled, and swiped with his axe, grazing James' calf muscle. James yelled, but wasn't hurt badly. Apollo tried to get up, but fell back down. James held the club aloft over Apollo's head.

"You have me! I surrender!" Apollo cried.

James was about to reach and help Apollo up when he let open a door adjacent to them. A Raptor lunged out. It was an Alpha Raptor! James yelled in terror, but a grenade sailed into the room from the window. James saw it, and the Raptor did too, he took that second, and turned his back to them, the grenade exploded and Apollo and the Raptor both screamed and fell silent. James' armor had protected him from the blast.

James looked at Apollo. He was covered up by the rubble from the blast, and all he could see was a bloody hand still clutching the battle axe. However, there were still more Dino Raiders in the building, and they still hadn't freed their animals from the underground catacombs. James joined Rhino and Shadow who were breaking down the doors to the underground chambers.

A Tyrannosaurus came up and stomped on the doors, which buckled and came off the hinges. Ark Village stormed into the underground chambers. Ark Village's dinosaurs were all in cages together. They destroyed the locks and opened up the cages. Raptors, Dilophosaurs and other dinosaurs exploded out of the cage, including Phil, who looked less than happy. There was a large metal door leading to the room where the rest of the Dino Raiders were.

Phil, roaring slammed his body into it and brought it crashing to the ground. There were several Dino Raiders in there, but they were quickly taken care of. Soon, all of Ark Village was claiming their own dinosaurs. Victory was theirs.

James was wandering, searching for loot. He found something he wasn't expecting: scuba gear. Though it was of primitive design, it was certainly scuba gear.

Suddenly a Dino Raider appeared out from behind the door. James drew his knife in a flash and put it to the Dino Raider's throat.

"What do you want?" asked James.

The Dino Raider stared at James with raging fury, "We will have our revenge. You know that."

James stared him in the eye, "Well then, I suggest that you formulate a better plan than you did this time. You are the ones that have failed. Apollo is dead. Now, stand right there."

James called to one of the Ark Villager's close by.

"Yes sir!" the villager said.  
James, still with his knife at the Dino Raider's throat, pointed out the door, "Take this man out with the other prisoners."

With that, he led the Dino Raider out of the door. He went back up, and met up with the men all sorting out and finding their dinosaurs. When Phil came up, he sat right down in front of James. James went up to Phil and patted him on the shoulder. Phil grunted and stood up. James managed to find Alan as well.

James signaled the men, and shouted, "Alright men, let's get out of here!"

They had won the fight without losing a single man. Jason would recover fully, only having a flesh wound. James and the rest of the tribe all met up happily. They all had plundered everything and James had gone down into the catacombs and found all their dinosaurs. He brought them up, and after several hours had returned to Ark Village. They locked the animals up in the stables and went to their homes, each of them with their trophies they had earned.

Rhino explained his gunpowder recipe to James. It was a mix of saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal. Rhino had got a new Smilodon, James got a really nice set of armor, and Shadow got a masterfully crafted Tyrannosaurus saddle. Set had been extremely lucky, and had made off with an orange Ankylosaurus.

James was standing outside his house. It was nighttime, and he was putting back the weapons and armor he had plundered from the raid. He heard footsteps come towards him. They weren't heavy footsteps, but light. He knew it was Shira. He stepped out to meet her. He was inside his storage shed. She stepped into the lantern light and looked like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. James felt a certain shyness in her behavior.

He smiled at her, "Oh it's you. I heard you coming."

Shira nodded, "I'm glad you're alright."

James still felt uneasy about this. She seemed…he couldn't describe it, something like a terrible dread that was under her skin. It made James walk towards her.

"What's the matter?"

Shira suddenly broke down in tears and, sobbing, she put her arms around James.

"I never thought I'd ever see you again." She said through her tears.

James put his arms around her, and spoke reassuringly, "I'm here and I'm alright. I won't be going anywhere."

He was filled with mixed emotions. Sorrow, happiness, and tenderness were all mixed. His sorrow at having to fight on this island, happiness that he was back safe, they had won, and nobody had been killed. Finally, he felt tenderness towards this wonderful woman who valued him so much.

He held her closer, for longer than usual. He feelings towards her were becoming more and more complex. He had never entertained the thought of romance between them, but he was beginning to wonder if he could. They both stood there for a long time, hoping to God that this would be their last nightmare.


	17. Cannonball the Doedicurus

James woke up refreshed. He went outside and saw David coming towards his house. He met him halfway.

"What's going on?" James asked.

David replied, "Shadow came with a report. He's out exploring, and he came back with a message to tell you."

James raised an eyebrow.

"He told me to tell you he's at the base at Lake Lore training a new creature."

James got suddenly excited, "What is it?"

David responded, "Oh, I can't exactly remember the name…it's dee-do, day-oh, dee-cure—"

James knew what he was talking about, "Doedicurus!"

"Yes," said David, "How do you pronounce it?"

James said back, "Dee-do-cure-us. It's like a giant armadillo with a spikey clubbed tail. I've never seen one before."

"Shadow said he saw it up near the North Hills," said David, "where the Dino Raiders base used to be."

James remembered that memorable battle that happened just a few weeks before.

James inquired, "What did Shadow say about taming it?"

David rattled off some facts and the taming method, "Well first, it can collect stone. Ankylosaurs let you get flint but the Dee-do—whatever… lets you get stone. He said that he fired a bunch of tranquilizer arrows at it, and then when it fell asleep he fed it Rockeroot. Apparently it does something to the thing and it's tame after that. I don't exactly know why."

James was excited. Taming anything was always incredible but taming a whole new creature was even more incredible. He thanked David and went to the castle to collect some supplies.

The castle was coming along great. He needed to add some more roofing but after that it was smooth sailing. He went to visit Clive in his little hut. He was fine. He kept his narcotics in the dodo hut, and he smeared some narcotics on some arrowheads. He was going to take Phil to help tame the Doedicurus. He would also easily kill any enemies along the way.

He went towards the stables, and fed Dennis, his new Dilophosaurus, and then fed Alan, before going to Phil's stall. He mounted, and ran off.

He crossed the bay, and at the opposite shore there was a Triceratops wandering around. Phil saw a dodo walking along the beach. Phil picked up the dodo and threw it over 30 feet away. The dodo, when it landed, squawked a storm before madly waddling off into the bush.

James kept going, but an hour later, he heard a huge roar. It was a wild Tyrannosaurus. Phil roared, and the T-rex charged. Fortunately, it was an adolescent male, and male T-rex's are less aggressive, and smaller than female T-rex's.

The T-rex chomped, and Phil punched the massive predator in the face. Phil kept attacking, roaring and punching. The T-rex bit and kicked. Then, in one mighty punch, Phil slammed its fists into the T-Rex's trachea, killing it. James cheered and Phil punched his chest and roared in victory. James harvested some of the prime meat to eat later.

He left the beach, and went towards the hill next to it. The only thing he saw there was a Sabretooth Cat. Phil made short work of that. He was forced to go back to the beach since a rocky outcrop prevented him from moving forward. He went down to the beach, and on one side was the ocean, and on the other side was a huge cliff, above that was the jungle. This caused a slim stretch of beach that was the only land available to James.

On the beach was a huge herd of Ankylosaurus. They completely blocked the way. James was nervous. This many Ankylosaurs, he counted nine, could be a nasty thing to bump into. Phil roared, trying to clear up the mob. James tried to quiet Phil, but the Ankylosaurs were getting upset. They swung their clubbed tails and bellowed. James was nervous. Nine Ankylosaurs could do a lot of damage.

One of the Ankylosaurs bellowed, swung its tail and charged. The rest of the Ankylosaurs followed, like a herd of angry armored bison. Phil ran away from the herd. He kept going and going. Phil turned and faced them. They kept coming. One of the Ankylosaurs turned around and swung its tail. Phil just dodged it. The others came quick. Phil went in, punching and grabbing. He had to try to outrun them, since killing them would be near impossible with their bony armor. They kept charging while Phil ran away. Any time an Ankylosaurus would come near, Phil would punch its head, which would send it back down a little. He did this to one and it fell back, and ran off. One down, eight to go.

A few more minutes of running and two more trailed off. Six now. Phil turned to face three that had caught up. He punched them all in the head, avoiding a club that almost sailed into his knee. They all turned tail and ran off. Just three more! Those were dealt with when Phil ran into the water. Ankylosaurus can't swim, and they looked at Phil swimming in the water. They all lost interest and left. James wondered if a Doedicurus was worth it.

After finally reaching the Northern Hills he reached a grassy meadow on one of the hills west slopes. There it was! It was an adult Doedicurus being swarmed by three Argentavis'. They were sometimes big enough to carry off a human child, though nowhere near big enough to carry off a Doedicurus.

Phil charged down and the Argentavis' flew off. They'd pick on a Doedicurus but not the Giant Ape. There was also a medium sized Pulmonoscorpius after it. What the appeal was with this Doedicurus James didn't know, but it was a good thing he had such thick armor.

James now had a chance to get a good look at the Doedicurus. It had a short head, and a dome shaped shell, with short cone shaped spikes on the front of the shell. It also had a long plated tail that ended in a sphere shaped club covered in spikes. It looked like quite a deadly creature; like a mammalian Ankylosaurus, which James was fed up with now.

All the sudden came another Argentavis which swooped down from the forest so James mounted Phil, who slapped the giant vulture, which flew off screeching. After taking care of that, he got out his bow and tranquilizer arrows. He took one shot at the Doedicurus', underbelly. The Doedicurus, which had been walking around, started charging James, who carefully stalked away from the creature. It wasn't fast by a long shot, and by jogging away for a bit, he could put distance between him and the Doedicurus. He would then shoot another arrow, and repeat the process until it was brought down.

The arrows kept hitting the hard shell of the Doedicurus, and when the arrows hit the shell they didn't penetrate the flesh, so the narcotics didn't take effect. James kept going, hoping to get a lucky shot somewhere on the soft underbelly. Even if he got a shot on the underneath of the tail, he'd be able to bring it down.

The Doedicurus almost caught up to James when he tripped on a tree branch. The Doedicurus raised its spiked tail and almost slammed it down on James. He shot it with another arrow. They just kept either bouncing off its shell, or penetrating, but not deep enough to allow the narcotics to take effect. He kept firing, and firing, getting frustrated. It was hard to aim well when he was running backwards, stumbling over rocks and tree branches in the field. He couldn't shoot its legs, which were short and stumpy. The tops were armored, so they were almost impossible to get.

He ran away at top speed, turned around, aimed and shot. The Doedicurus stopped, breathed, gasped and fell on the ground, asleep. He cautiously walked over, and looked at his arrow. It had hit in the miniscule crack between the head and shell, pretty much in the shoulder. Now it was down and out.

David had also said that Shadow saw them eating Mejoberries, and there happened to be a Mejoberry bush on the north edge of the field. Unlike his experience with Barry, who had met his untimely end sometime ago, he already had a name for this Doedicurus: Cannonball. It was obvious, and even if it was unoriginal, James liked the name. It fit.

After two and a half hours, he was still waiting. One thing was for sure, when a Doedicurus went down, it stayed down! Phil was busy scratching himself, foraging for berries and fending off the occasional Sabretooth Cat or Argentavis.

James watched over the Doedicurus, until he heard a stomp, then another. He kept hearing them get closer and closer. He got his bow and arrow. Then he heard the roar of the dinosaur he least wanted to hear: a Spinosaurus. He saw it coming over the hill, flexing its hands, but he breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw Shadow come up on his Spinosaurus, Metaljaw. Shadow let down the ladder attached to the saddle and dismounted.

He looked at James, "You got one! What's its name?"

"Cannonball. He'd better wake up soon!"

Then, as if on cue the Doedicurus woke up. James scrambled and got the Rockeroot out of his knapsack, along with some Mejoberries. The Doedicurus ate them, and then suddenly, it bellowed and walked up to James. James scratched its shell, and it did nothing. He had tamed a Doedicurus, and now he mounted. The shell was too round and too smooth to be ridden on. He definitely needed a saddle. Shadow got back up on Metaljaw, who hissed like a crocodile. He threw down a saddle.

"Rhino made several yesterday," said Shadow, "This one's for you."

He put it on the Doedicurus.

He looked back at Shadow who said, "Let's go back!"

James happened to be on the complete other end of the island from Ark Village, and he needed to go all the way back. That might take an entire day, which it did, and after finally getting back to the village he met David and McClure, who both had found their on Doedicurus. James saw they were attacking something, it was an Ankylosaurus. Suddenly Metaljaw the Spinosaurus came crashing over and he killed the Ankylosaurus instead. After that he returned to Ark Village, and went to bed. It had been a long day.

Next day he found Cannonball in the stables, and Shira had come over on her Carnotaurus, Shullershy. Brian, another tribe member, had also come over on his Pteranodon. They challenged James to a Doedicurus race. James gladly accepted. They all three got in position with their Doedicurus', and Rhino held the start flag.

Shira nudged James with a mischievous smile, "May the best racer win!"

James grinned, "I sure hope you trained your Doedicurus well."

Rhino boomed out, "Ready! Set! GO!"

they all three raced on the Doedicurus' and then they did something James would've never expected. They curled up in balls and rolled. James couldn't ride while they did it, but it looked amazing. He ran after Cannonball, which was going the same speed. All the sudden all three of the Doedicurus' were rolling like oversized volleyballs down the beach towards the finish line, while Shira, James and Brian ran after, cheering like madmen. Everybody in Ark Village was watching now, cheering for their own Doedicurus.

To add to the chaos, Metaljaw, who was watching, roared and caused the Doedicurus to stop a bit, before continuing rolling to the finish line. It turned out Brian's blue Doedicurus, Sonic, won. They all cheered, and the prize was a beautiful saddle with gold rings, and leather.

James went up to Shira at the stables, "Well I guess the best racer won."

Shira shook her head, "Always beware of blue animals named Sonic!"

James shook his head and laughed, "Very true." he said.

He looked up at her, and she smiled mischievously, "You know James that was a really nice saddle."

James rolled his eyes, "Alright Shira you don't have to rub it in..."

Shira grinned, "We need to find a better way of racing."

James nodded, "True. Rhino said that he was inventing some sort of sled that we can ride while on the Doedicurus."

Shira raised an eyebrow, "How will it work?"

"Well, at the place where the Doedicurus rolls up, in the middle you could attach a harness that goes through the shell. Right in the middle of the belly. It would be a great improvement."

"Well hopefully it'll be here before next race."

James nodded, "They should be."

Rhino came up, nodded disapprovingly, and looked at Shira.

"Shira I thought you had it there for a while. Did you let Brian win?"

Shira gave a mischievous smile and gently elbow nudged Rhino.

Rhino laughed, "Well I'm back to the workshop for that new Doedicurus sled. I'll see you two around."

James waved and so did Shira.

"You didn't really let him win," said James, "did you?"

Shira looked at James, "How could I? You're not riding them when you race. It's a dice cast if you win or not, just depending on the track and how well-trained your Doedicurus is."

James nodded, that was true enough.

"That settles it!" said James, "I'm not racing one more time until I perfect the sled idea."

Shira nodded, "Go for it."

James thought for a moment, "I'll draw up the blueprints and Rhino could build it."

There was a long pause. Shira looked at the ground and made markings in the dirt with her shoe.

James looked at her, "A penny for your thoughts?"

Shira chuckled and kept looking at the ground before letting out a long sigh.

"I just want to thank you for what you said that night after the raid."

James nodded, "Don't think about it."

"But I do." Said Shira, "I was so scared. I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing you again."

James nodded.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Shira.

"Shira please!" said James "I don't want you to do anything for me." Without realizing, James held both her hands. Shira looked at James, who let go slowly. Shira smiled and they looked into each other's eyes.

James paused, "Why don't you come over to my house. I could use a breather after that race and I'm sure you could too."

Shira nodded, "Alright."

With that, they went off, James still wondering in the back of his mind if Shira rigged the race or not…


	18. The Dodo Farm is Born

James' plans were finally realized. He had planned for weeks of building a dodo farm. He could build quite the tycoon on dodo eggs, or by selling the birds themselves. He had spent several weeks building a large enclosure, and now it was finished. The dodo farm was born! It was a real, working, dodo egg farm. He just needed a sign, and he would make that soon. For now, he needed some dodos. He had Clive, and he had built a special house for him inside the egg farm.

He did have a sign that said, "Inquire within about purchases". He went inside, and admired his own handiwork. It had been a team effort, Shadow, Rhino, McClure and David had helped. There were some other dodos inside, but not quite enough to make a surplus of eggs. Besides, if somebody were to buy a dodo, an egg source went out the door, but he would only sell dodos for a high price. There was a pink dodo named cotton candy, and James said hello to her. He refilled their feeding trough, which was only filled with the finest Mejoberries. Dodos love Mejoberries more than any other berries.

There was a black dodo named Lofita, a grey dodo named Boxy, and a light brown dodo named Copper. At the back of the farm was compost, where he would put the dodo dung, or spoiled Mejoberries. Over time the compost would create some very nutritious fertilizer. He had plans to put berry plots or Rockeroot plots to create more dodo food on the farm itself, so he didn't have to go out and gather berries.

With only four dodos in the farm, there weren't many eggs. Stocks were low, and besides, Boxy was a male. He needed to go find some more dodos using his Pteranodon, and just as he was about to get on, he saw a wild dodo just outside the farm. He ran over, but it was a male. No use to him.

He needed to move Clive from his little hut outside the farm to the hut in the dodo farm. He went back outside the farm and saw, on the slope below the dodo farm towards Ark Village, two dodos. He landed the Pteranodon and checked the gender. They were both female! One was a copper color, and the Pteranodon picked it up gently in its claws before carrying it to the dodo farm, and dropping it in. James looked back to see it waddling around before settling down. Next he went after the other one. There was also another male near the female he was going for. It was light blue with a pink head. He didn't bother going after male dodos.

When he looked around he saw there were actually more dodos than he thought; maybe five. He picked up the one he knew was a female. It was blue with a white head.

As he went out again, he saw David, Brian, and Shadow all working on the Doedicurus racetrack. They planned on having a massive festival with the official opening of the village's first egg farm. There would be fireworks, and a huge Doedicurus race with everybody in the tribe that had one. The prize was a new saddle. It was red with gold rings, and when James saw it in the village court, he was set on winning it.

A few hours and two female dodos later, Brian came up to the farm on his Pteranodon.

He had his monkey on his shoulder, "Alright James, Doedicurus race starts in a few minutes! You ready?"

James nodded, "The track's finished right?"

Brian nodded, "You'd better get Cannonball ready. You're going to eat Sonic's dust! Just like last time!"

James huffed, "Easy mate, I've been training Cannonball!"

Brian huffed himself, "Same here! To the track!"

Shadow had come to watch. The track had been completed earlier in the day, and the whole village was watching, eager for the festivities to start. The track was huge. It started on the west side of the village, just across the inlet, close to the dodo farm. It then went down the slope, down a cliff which the Doedicurus would have to jump, then it went across the grass towards the beach. The whole track was horseshoe shaped, and after going from the grass it led down to the beach. It followed the beach, before going into very shallow water, which was the evening-the-odds point. After that it went right next to Ark Village, before ending at the ocean's edge. It was about a mile long.

James had trained Cannonball for roller races, where the Doedicurus rolls into a ball, and goes as fast as it can to the finish line. James had also noticed that Cannonball had a bit of competitive spirit about him. He was anxious to win the saddle!

Tom lifted the flare gun in the air. Brian and James were set with Cannonball and Sonic.

Tom shouted, "Three! Two! One! Go!"

All the sudden Cannonball and Sonic morphed into armored balls and rushed down the track. James, Brian and Tom all ran behind, shouting for their mounts. Cannonball was in the lead. James cheered while suddenly, Sonic came rushing ahead. They each plummeted down the 10 foot cliff and kept rolling. Then, the beach. Sonic slowed down a bit, and Cannonball rolled ahead.

When they got to the water, Sonic stopped, unrolled and looked. Cannonball, who had been trained to work in water, plowed ahead as if he was still on dry land. Sonic then rolled back up and tried to gain lost ground. The track near Ark Village rolled into view. People started cheering like mad, some shouting for Cannonball, others for Sonic. The finish line was in sight. Sonic was gaining but Cannonball was still far ahead. Then, Cannonball crossed, unrolled and bellowed. James threw his fist in the air and cheered.

At the end of the race, Brian and James shook hands, and Shadow presented the new saddle. It was beautifully crafted by Rhino. It was white, with red racing stripes and gold rings for the joints. This was Cannonballs racing saddle. Brian and James put their Doedicurus in the stable. James went over to see Sonic. He was black, with dark blue flecks and spots. Cannonball was a bit more down to earth grey and brown.

Brian met with James in the stables, "Good race," said Brian.

James chuckled, "Yes it was. Now we're even."

The fireworks would be the next event, but it was still only afternoon, so the villagers visited and ate. Several people had come up to buy eggs, and James was sold out by the end of a few hours. Every time a dodo laid an egg he went inside to get it, and it was sold while it was still hot in his hand.

He was busy trying to tame the other two dodos, and after feeding them some Mejoberries, they were tame as a kitten. Dodos were one of the easiest animals to tame on the island.

Tom came up to the door, "Are you accepting any internships here?"

James smiled, "Sorry Tom, I have all the help I need. But here," he handed Tom a dodo egg, "Thanks for your help with the race."

Tom smiled and went back to enjoy his dinner. James suddenly realized he did need some help.

Tom was down the hill a bit and James shouted to him, "Hey Tom!"

Tom turned back, "Yeah?"

"I could use your help! I need to get Clive from his hut to the dodo farm!"

Tom jogged back up, "Sure I could do that."

Clive was James' first dodo. He was completely grey and if he ever needed to breed dodos Clive would be his "rooster". Come to think of it, there were no gender names for dodos, so James called the males roosters and the female's hens.

Tom went into the hut. James watched. The hut was close to the dodo farm, where James kept Clive, and some other supplies for the farm. Clive could now live in the farm, so the hut would probably become a storage shed for the farm. He lured Clive out with some Mejoberries, and led him into the farm. Then he was led right into his new hut in the dodo farm.

He paid Tom two eggs, which he was very happy to get, since dodo eggs were his favorite food on the island. After that he named his two new dodos. The brown one he named Bertha, and the white headed one he simply named, White-Head.

He went back to the village. It was getting towards evening, and the fireworks would start to go off. Rhino never ceased to amaze James. He had not only figured out how to make gunpowder from the raw materials of the island, but to make them colored as well. This was going to be a great show.

He met Rhino on top of the Ark Village Great Hall, and he was testing the fireworks before setting them all off. He pointed the rocket up to the air, and with a shrieking whistle the whole thing flew into the air. It exploded in a gleaming shower of green, which then gently fell like emeralds to the ground.

James clapped, and Rhino grinned, "Who's ready for the show?"

When nightfall came, the whole village came into the square. Rhino had all the rockets on top of the roof of the Great Hall. The village shouted the countdown, "Three! Two! One! Start the festival!" When that was shouted, he set off the first firework. It boomed into a vivid blue explosion, followed by green, red, and purple. They all cheered, in celebration of James' dodo farm.

The explosions kept on coming. Boom! Bang! The entire village was illuminated with color. The dinosaurs were staring up into the night. Then Spinosaurs and T-rex's started roaring. Not a vicious battle cry but a gentle, deep groan of pleasure. The fireworks kept exploding and raining light into the night, before the sparks floated down to the ground like gems.

Shira came up beside James and sat down next to him. James smiled as she looked up into the glittering spectacle.

She looked at James, "It's been so long since I've seen fireworks."

James smiled and put his arm around her. She smiled warmly and looked at James, then back at the sky. More sparking booms and explosions. It was a night James and the village would always remember.


	19. Alpha Carnotaurus

Shira came and pounded on James' door.

"James!" she shouted.

James came out and looked at her. She had a scared look in her eye.

"What is it?" asked James.

"An Alpha Carnotaurus!" Shira said, worried, "I saw it stalking around the forest just across the Lake from the village! It's heading closer to the houses."

James nodded, "I'll take care of it. Don't worry."

An Alpha Carnotaurus? In all the time he'd been here he'd only ever seen Alpha Raptors. But an Alpha Carnotaurus?! Carnotaurus were big predators, smaller than T-rexes or Spinosaurs but much bigger than Raptors. He'd never seen an Alpha Carnotaurus, but it was certainly a deadly monster. He decided to take Phil. Phil was able to hold his own against juvenile Tyrannosaurus, and he could probably take on an Alpha Carnotaurus.

Phil ran across the beach, and as he approached the crossing point, he saw the silhouette of a monstrous Carnotaurus in the forest. It had a haunting orange glow around it. Alpha dinosaurs are characterized by strange bioluminescent glow. He crossed the river without any problems, and then saw the Carnotaurus making a retreat into the jungle, since its glow disappeared. Phil walked into the Jungle. The glow appeared again. James guided Phil towards the monster. It was attacking a dodo. It swallowed the dodo and Phil came up from behind and slapped its flank.

The Alpha Carnotaurus roared loudly and turned on Phil, who started quickly running away. He rushed out of the forest and back to the Lake shore, where there was more space for battle. It crashed out of the forest with its head lowered, its bright white horns ready to smash into whatever came in its way. While a regular Carnotaurus could usually be outrun by Phil, this Alpha Carnotaurus caught up to James and Phil very quickly. Phil roared and so did the Alpha Carnotaurus.

Like a barroom brawler, Phil punched and slapped the Carnotaurus, doing considerable damage with his huge muscular hands. Phil kept slamming and punching. James told Phil to run and the ape ran alongside the beach. Running behind was the Alpha Carnotaurus, who was gaining on them. Then, it overtook them. Phil attacked, punching and ripping. Blood was all over the Alpha Carnotaurus. Phil was also injured in the flank. The Carnotaurus kept kicking and swinging its head, swiping with its horns.

The Alpha Carnotaurus tried to bite Phil, but Phil grabbed the Theropod's jaws with his bare hands, and ripped the Carnotaurus' jaw open. This finally brought down the beast for good. Before harvesting the Carnotaurus, he mounted Phil and rode him back to Ark Village. He knocked on Shira's door. She answered and he told her what happened.

"Shira!" said James.

Shira opened her door and breathed a sigh of relief, "James, what happened?"

James took out two blood red horns from his satchel.

Shira's eyes widened "You killed it?"

James nodded.

"Shira, I need your help harvesting it. There's all kinds of prime meat on it."

Shira nodded, "Sure," she responded, "I'll get on my Ichthyosaur and we can harvest it."

When they came to the carcass, Shira gasped.

"That thing is huge!"

Indeed it was. It was only a bit smaller than a Tyrannosaurus. She looked at it. It wasn't sparking now that it was dead.

"It's so red!" she said in awe.

Shira looked back at James, "Are there any other types of Alpha dinosaurs?"

"Yes. When I tamed Phil I fought an Alpha Raptor, and Shadow said that there's a legend among the Rockarts of an Alpha Tyrannosaurus rex."

Shira shivered, "Are they tamable?"

James violently shook his head, "Oh no, no, no! They're far too deadly. As soon as this thing caught wind of me it was bent on killing me. What did you do when you first saw it?"

"I just saw something that looked like it was on fire. Sparks were flying everywhere but when I got closer I saw that it was a huge Carnotaurus. I had no idea it was so huge. It was too far away to notice me, so I ran off to you to warn you, and here it is."

James harvested its prime meat.

"Shira, can I get on your Ichthyosaur and go back to cave with her?"

Shira nodded, "I'll take Phil back."

"Thanks Shira, just make sure he doesn't get tired. Take him to Rhino to help his wound."

A few hours later, Rhino had healed Phil's wound, and James returned on Shira's Ichthyosaur. He went to the outdoor kitchen and cooked some of the prime meat. He gave some to Shira, and stored the rest in the ice cooler. He then went towards his Pteranodon, and mounted it. He was going out to find more dodos for Clive's Egg Farm. All he needed were female dodos to make eggs to eat.

The egg farm was about a quarter mile away from Ark Village. He directed the Pteranodon towards a female dodo, then he picked it up lightly in the Pterosaur's claws, flew above the farm enclosure, and dropped it in. James would only allow his most trusted friends to watch over the farm, or drop dodos in.

He set up the dodo farm like a fort. He saw Tom trying to wrangle some dodos to get access to the farm. He flew back and grabbed another dodo, and then put it in the farm.

When he dismounted the Pteranodon, he found Tom at the entrance with five dodos. James smiled,

"What brings you here today"

Tom smiled, "Would you be interested in these five female dodos?"

James nodded, "Your asking price?"

"Some metal and flint."

"You have a deal."

He paid Tom and let in the new dodos. James' monkey, lil' Phil scurried over and climbed on James' shoulder.

"Hey there little guy," said James, chuckling, "Where've you been?"

He had tamed lil' Phil, a type of monkey called Mesopithecus, only a week before.

He went back into the farm, and looked it over. The improvement he wanted to add this time was a well. He could use either a well or a stone tank to water the berry patches he'd put inside the farm to feed his dodos. The dodos could also drink from it.

On the top of the dodo coop he put the stone reservoir, and attached a stone irrigation pipe down from it. Alison the Triceratops was only a short way away, and James rode her over and put some water carriers on the saddle. After a few trips back and forth from Lake Lore, the water reservoir was filled up.

He lifted the latch to let water go down the pipes. It poured out of the taps and onto the ground.

James laughed, "That's awesome! You dodos have some water now!"

The dodos came over to investigate, some drinking from the puddles that had formed on the ground. The reservoir could also collect rainwater, and he wouldn't need to fill it up often since it rained frequently in the rainforest they lived in.

A day later, he built a spikey wood wall to protect the dodo farm. He also put some narcotic tripwires around it, which would knock out anybody who inhaled the scentless fumes. Shadow said it was the most protected dodo farm in the world. He was probably right. He also added a large wooden sign and painted, "Welcome to Clive's Egg Farm." He nailed the sign up and sighed. Now he had a sign.

He looked behind him and saw David's Apatosaurus. It was browsing on leaves, wearing the huge saddle David had plundered from the Dino Raiders. He ran back to Ark Village, saying hello to Shadow on the way, and he dropped off the paint he used in the Storage building. They housed the fabricator they plundered from the Dino Raiders in there. The fabricator could produce mechanized items, and gasoline from crude oil, which was in abundance in the area.

He saw Lil' Phil there hooting and looking at the cooking pot in the room. James picked him up and put him on his shoulder. He opened a storage cabinet he used for a gardening plot he wanted to put in the dodo farm. He had put in an irrigation system yesterday, and he was going to put a Rockeroot plot there for the dodos to eat from.

He headed back to the farm and looked at the plots he had made. He had picked up Rockeroot seeds at the storage building and scattered them around the plots. Water was steadily trickling down into the plots, and watering the seeds. He had planted Rockeroot to create dodo kibble, which needed dodo eggs, raw meat and Rockeroot. Rockeroot was a type of root with a bitter taste to humans, but dodos loved it. It was going quite well indeed. He had also got Mejoberry seeds to plant in another plot. He went towards his new addition.

In a separate small building that looked like an outhouse, there was a refrigerator, thanks to the fabricator from the Dino Raiders. There were dodo eggs, cooked meat and Mejoberries in there, which was what the dodos ate. James had another fridge in his house.

Just then, Shadow came in the door.

He knelt down and picked up a dodo egg, "You missed this one!"

James chuckled and put it in the fridge.

"What do you need buddy?" James asked Shadow.

"Nothing," he said, "Just out exploring with Ronen. I've been looking for an Alpha Dinosaur, to see if I can tame it."

James chuckled to himself at the mention of an Alpha.

"I just killed an Alpha Carnotaurus across Lake Lore yesterday."

Shadow laughed, "I'm not out for something that big. If I could just tame an Alpha Raptor we'd have new and better dinosaurs."

"It would, but it may not happen. I don't think you can train an Alpha Raptor."

Shadow looked around, "I'm just bored is all. We've tamed every new creature within a forty mile radius. I miss the thrill of taming a new creature, especially something like a Spinosaurus. I just don't feel it anymore."

James thought for a moment of an interesting creature, "There are always aquatic creatures. You don't have one that I know of. Go out on one of my Ichthyosaurs and tame a Plesiosaur or something."

Shadow thought that sounded like a good idea. He thanked James and rode off.

He left his farm and went down to Ark Village. He went to Brian's dodo farm, which was simply attached to his house. It was guarded by his Pulmonoscorpius named Big Slave. There were about 10 dodos inside. Brian wasn't in, so James took his eggs and put them in Brian's fridge. Brian had formed what he called an "egg alliance", where he would sell James dodo kibble In exchange for eggs. He would then sell the eggs to other tribe members for random supplies he needed.

James left and mounted his Mammoth named Mr. Moss. He was going out on a run to get some Mejoberries for the dodos to eat. He was just getting on when he saw somebody's body on the ground. It was Tom. He wasn't dead, he was unconscious. James dismounted and ran over. Tom appeared to have been punched in the face judging by a nice black eye. James supposed somebody was after his dodos. James was able to get him to wake up.

"What happened to you Tom?" asked James.

Tom groaned, "Some…tribesman…I don't remember who, tried to steal my dodos. When I denied them he threw a sucker punch and that was it. My dodos are gone."

James sighed, "We'll find the tribesman. How many dodos dis you lose?"

"Six."

"I'll look into it. Go ahead back to your house and rest."

Tom nodded and walked off.

James walked back to his house and saw Shira riding her Carnotaurus Shullershy. James waved, and Shira waved back before riding off into the jungle. James decided to follow her. He mounted Alan and rode over.

"Shira!" shouted James.

Shira looked over her shoulder, and stopped Shullershy. They both met in a small clearing in the forest. He looked at her. She smiled as she brushed away some black hair from her face.

"Hello James," she said cheerfully, "I was just going riding for a bit. It's a lovely day. Is there something you need?"

James had grown quite fond of Shira over the past months, more so every day. They both dismounted and walked towards each other.

"No," he replied, "I just wanted to talk with you a bit. I've been so busy with the farm and I just wanted a bit of time alone."

She nodded, "Yes you have been busy with it."

Alan barked a friendly call to Shira, who smiled and petted the Raptor's muzzle.

Shira looked at James, "You know, there's a lovely little spot near Lake Lore that we could go to."

James nodded, "Let's go."

When they reached the spot, James sat down. It was a cliff about 30 feet above the beach. She sat down and they talked for a bit. Shira then got a bit more somber.

She looked down at the ground, "James, since we've been on the island you've helped me to heal. I feel like I could trust you with my life, and you should know why I was so depressed when I first arrived…and while I was still at the ESC."

James shook his head, "It's alright Shira if you don't want to tell me-"

"But I do." said Shira, "It had to do with my brother. Ever since I could remember he was always dreaming of becoming an explorer. And later when my father befriended the president of the ESC, my brother wanted so badly to get a position there."

"Where did you grow up? I don't know too much about your childhood."

"I was born in Israel. My name Shira is a Jewish name meaning song. My dad loved to sing, he actually had a job as a radio jockey before he went to college. He was such a happy man, you would've loved to meet him. Anyway, my brother Jonathan worked really hard to get a position in the ESC, but he ended up meeting a man named Kenneth Bridger. He was a bad person and I knew it. He had charisma though, and Jonathan began to spend more and more time with him. I never liked him."

"Why not?"

"He was just a conniver. He had multiple branches that trafficked drugs and illegal wares. The police were never able to get leads firm enough to convict him. Jonathan ended up getting more and more corrupted by Adam until one day, he ended up embezzling from his employer. He was caught and sentenced, and then while he was in prison Adam took the position in the ESC that Jonathan had worked so hard for."

James frowned. He had met Bridger a few times, though he had been removed from the Society several years before they crashed on the Ark.

"When he came back from prison he went home. Oh, my dad was so angry with him. They had a terrible fight with each other, just shouting back and forth. My dad was so disappointed, and Jonathan was both ashamed, and angry, but anger began to take over. He became a very bitter man. Later, he left us without a goodbye, and I didn't see him again."

James was saddened by Shira's story, but it explained some things James had always wondered about her. A small tear formed in Shira's eye.

"It's alright Shira."

She nodded, "I was so depressed when I was in the ESC, and on our early times on the island because I blamed myself for what happened to Jonathan. I kept thinking to myself that I didn't do enough to stop their relationship, I should've put a stop to it and nipped it in the bud while I still could've. I was just so angry with myself and with Jonathan, even though I wouldn't admit it. I felt so useless, which is why I kept ducking out and hiding from everyone."

She paused. James looked out into the lake shore and saw an Ichthyosaurus jump out of the water like a dolphin.

Shira continued, "Anyway, when you told me that we were meant to be here, and your encouragement besides, I began to rethink what I had thought. I had a purpose here, and I wasn't a useless human being after all. I hope Jonathan has come to the right way, but right now, you've taught me to be content with what I have now."

James smiled at Shira.

"Thank you James."

James put his arm around her, and they looked into the lake.

The next day James captured and tamed a Dilophosaurus. It would be a present to Setonji, for his base. It was bright orange, with a white frill. He went back on Mr. Moss, the mammoth, which he had meant to do yesterday before he was interrupted by finding Tom on the ground. The mammoth uprooted an entire berry bush. James had put a huge cloth tarp down connected to each tusk on the mammoth. Berries flooded into the tarp, collecting in heaps. After a bit longer, he took all the berries and put them in the dodo farm. He also put fertilizer in the garden plots and gathered the dodo eggs on the floor before putting them in the farm fridge. After visiting the storage building and dropping off some odd objects in his knapsack, James went outside and saw Rhino coming over. He asked for some dodo eggs in exchange for some narcoberries. They swapped, and Rhino went off to fry his eggs, and James went to create some narcotics from the Narcoberries.

The next day James decided to explore some of the underwater areas near Ark Village on his Ichthyosaur, Echo. Echo was extremely fast and after donning his oxygen tanks he found at the Dino Raiders base, he dove down to the depths. He went down to the murky depths; far down he had seen what looked like a cave. He wanted to be certain though.

He got up and under a huge rock, and sure enough, it was a cave. There was a bright white glow coming from inside the cave. It was a huge crystal. There were also silica pearls growing on rocks. He picked the pearls up with his hands and used his pickaxe to gently snap the crystals from off the rocks they were on. He went around picking and grabbing, knowing these would fetch a pretty penny back at Ark Village.

James wondered how incredible it would be to live in one of these kinds of underwater caves. James wouldn't do it, but some people might. He got back on the Ichthyosaur and went back underwater. On the way out, the Elasmosaurus came from around the corner. Echo swam off as fast as he could, which was very fast, away from the needle-sharp teeth of the Elasmosaurus. They kept swimming for a short time until they reached Ark Village. James took his treasure, hid it in the house, and as it was getting dark, checked the farm, fed his animals and went to bed.

Next day he returned to the fridge where he had put the meat from the Alpha Carnotaurus. As he took some out for a quick taming mission, he wondered if there were any other Alpha dinosaurs out there.

Certainly they were extremely rare, but if there were any others, how dangerous were they, what species did they manifest in, and could they be tamed? This intrigued James the most. Alpha dinosaurs were indeed incredibly dangerous, but most people would assume that Alpha Spinosaurs or T-rex's were too deadly to be tamed. He knew it was Shadow's newest obsession. Shadow had wondered for ages if Alpha dinosaurs could be tamed, but had never gone in search of one for fear of them.

James certainly didn't want anything to do with them, Rhino treated them like dangerous rats or mice, and Shira was terrified of them. Even if one of them could be tamed, James doubted whether he'd ever fully trust it. Like a Rottweiler off the street. You never really want to get too close even if it's adopted and seems friendly enough. With that, he mounted Alan and made for the jungle. Hopefully he'd be able to bring back a Carnotaurus. If not, maybe a Raptor. This was the wonderful part of living on the island, you were free as a bird.


End file.
